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Maintaining a Strong Brand during Uncertain Economic Times

It’s pretty clear we are in the midst of turbulent economic times. One of the more frequent inquiries we receive from clients is “How do I manage my marketing efforts during an economic downturn to protect my brand equity?”

This is a tough question.

As we approach the year end budgeting cycle, most marketing managers are likely to face a reduced budget for the next year. The challenge is allocating a smaller pool of resources across critical marketing and business development activities. By drawing from our own experience, as well as the research on the value of marketing efforts during economic recessions, we can offer the following proven points of guidance.

Maintain Brand Visibility –The worst thing that a company can do is give up all of the positive brand equity that they have built during the good economic times. In this regard, maintaining visibility in the market place is critical. If customers are used to seeing your organization’s presence in the monthly trade publication, at the major trade shows, and at the annual user groups, then make sure that your organization continues that trend. Being conspicuous by your absence can damage brand equity as customers, suppliers, and competitors question your viability. Instead of getting a 10’ by 20’ trade show booth, get the 10’ by 10’, instead of getting the full page add in the monthly trade rag, get a half page ad.

Promote Brand Stability – Branding efforts must be geared towards stressing security and stability. Most of your customers are likely feeling the pinch too. They are scrutinizing every dollar spent; in this regard they want to make sure that their investments with you are secure. Smart organizations increase their communication with there current customer base during an economic downturn. This can be done in a cost effective manner using email blasts, newsletters, and brief news announcements.

Share the Risk with Brand Partners – Strong brands are built with partners. Whether they are retail outlets, technology partners, or sales and marketing partners, who you maintain business relationships speaks volumes about your brand. Effective companies meet with their partners early on during economic downturns to find ways to overcome resource constraints, while working towards a common goal. Share the cost of advertising and trade show that might be cost prohibitive during the next year.

Maintain a Positive Brand Image – Often during recession, companies’ performance starts to suffer. For public firms, the news will eventually find its way into the media, even for private companies inevitably; this news will leak out to the public. Such instances can tarnish the image of the firm. Branding efforts have to be geared towards combating the inevitable performance drop off that many companies will experience. Low cost branding efforts, such as press releases, customer testimonials, white papers, and web site launches can help stress the positive aspects of your organization.

Since World War II, the U.S. economy has experienced a recession every five years or so. Some are longer, some are more severe – but they all end eventually. One thing that the marketing research has proven is that the strategies that your company adopts during a recession can have long term consequences for your brand image.

In building a strong brand, we stress frequency and consistency, this is even more important during down times. One of the worst courses of action that a company can take during a recession is to dramatically reduce sales and marketing efforts that are crucial to building and maintaining brand equity.

 

—Mark Vincent