At the moment, it feels like the global economy hits a new low almost every day. Massive financial institutions go into administration, established global airlines go bust, redundancies are on the rise… Most people, and the companies they work for, are understandably facing the future with more than a little trepidation.
Last month, Carol-Ann Morgan’s contribution to our Thursday Night Insight series commented on why challenging times bring changing market research needs.
In it, Carol-Ann recognized that, while economic difficulties may bring obvious challenges, the answer often lies in best utilizing your budget to give yourself a competitive advantage. This could be anything from a re-allocation of marketing spend to the commissioning of a piece of market research in order to spot new opportunities that your competitors might shy away from presently. Whilst a little more caution than in recent times is perhaps prudent, Carol-Ann summarized that the worst thing you can do when times are hard is nothing.
It would appear that Bob Liodice of the Association of National Advertisers would agree. In an article appearing in BtoB Magazine, the ANA’s president-CEO comments that: "Historically, marketing budgets are among the first to be cut in a budget crunch, but marketers should be cautious about trying to find a quick fix. Marketers need to make far smarter decisions about marketing investments than ever before and, hopefully, influence CEOs and CFOs to not cut as drastically as before. Marketers need to invest strategically and tactically to make sure their brands remain strong. When marketers do increase spending and do it in the right way, they can gain share of market."
Liodice’s comments were made in response to a recent ANA survey, which found that more that half of all U.S. advertisers questioned expect their advertising budgets to be reduced over the coming six months as a result of the tough economic climate.
To read the article in full, please click here
