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Adapt Your Marketing
Communication Plan:
Build Recession Proof Businesses with
Recession Marketing Techniques
Your marketing communication plan needs to be updated regularly and adapted as necessary; particularly as market and economic conditions change. Learn recession marketing techniques (for example: use marketing postcards as a tactic - they are quick to produce, high impact (if well designed) and relatively low-cost) and use them in your marketing programs.
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What's your marketing communication plan during a recession or market slowdown? Many businesses don't change their marketing concept or plan to accommodate changing economic or market conditions.
However, to effectively manage your business, and to even successfully grow your business during slow times, you need to adapt your plan for the market.
We have been in a global economic slowdown for a number of years; and a number of countries are still in recovery from recession.
There are no recession proof businesses, although some business sectors will weather the storm better than others. Historically, businesses selling 'sin, staples, and small pleasures' will do all right during a recession.
The theory (and practice) seems to be that people need the sin (for example, alcohol, chocolate, cigarettes) and the small pleasures (phone, coffee, hair cuts) to feel better during bad times; and of course they need the staples (food, medicine, shelter, transportation) to survive.
Recession marketing is an approach you can use to address challenging times. Marketing during slow economic times needs to be different than marketing during good economic times.
Marketing Communication Plan
Top 10 Recession Marketing Messages and Tactics:
Do not focus on the recession or slow economy; people know the economy is bad, they don't want, or need, to be reminded.
If you are perceived to be big business and/or corporate, be prepared for a backlash; during a slow economy, customers, consumers and the general public are not sympathetic to big business (they blame the corporate world for the recession).
If you are a small business owner, be prepared to capitalize on your small business growth. Small and local businesses will be a new trend as the marketplace looks to support its own communities (rather than big, international stores). Your messaging needs to focus on who you are, what you do, and how you fit, and participate, in your community.
Businesses that focus on the community and corporate sustainability (social strategy, economic strategy and environmental strategy: the 'three-legged stool') will win the attention of the market. Develop a corporate sustainability policy and make sure you communicate it to your customers, on your website, to your market.
Do focus your marketing messages on values, life, family and experiences. The me-generation and the focus on self is out; the we-generation is in. Speak from the perspective of, "We are all in this together". Focus on family, the group, the team, the community.
Use messaging that empowers your audience and use messaging that helps your audience feel normal, in abnormal times. Messaging needs to be visual, auditory and written (use radio and television ads if you afford to; if not, use local newspapers, marketing post cards, brochures, posters, auto wraps, and more).
Do focus on high value, value added and low-cost. People want a good deal. The trend is to get a good bargain or to get a good deal. Perceived value and outstanding service is important to sell higher priced or luxury goods or services.
Do use humor in your messaging. Do provide entertainment value in your messaging. During tough times people have a need for escapism; use humor to get your message out to your market. Also consider story telling as a communication technique; involve your audience in your story. Help your audience escape the bad news and realities; help them to feel better and to be more positive about the future.
Networking and relationship building within your community and marketplace are important marketing communication plan tactics during bad times.
Consider your pricing strategy. If your product has a large price tag; make it look smaller. Show the price in monthly payments. Provide extended financing plans. Re-package to look smaller. Big is out (big prices and big spending). And anything that might be interpreted to be excessive. What's in? Being careful with money/spending, savings, pricing deals and anything that looks like you're taking this recession seriously.
During recessionary times, the news is typically all bad; lots of doom and gloom. Your marketing communication plan during these tough times must include a re-branding of your business to be more appealing to your marketplace. Re-think the way you market your business.
Businesses that adapt and re-focus their business, marketing and strategic plans can earn business growth and success during recessionary times.
Develop your marketing communication plan to be adaptable to the market and to the economic environment.
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Additional Reading:
Understand Competition Analysis and how to manage your competitive tactics.
Effective marketing sometimes includes Guerilla Marketing tactics.
Use a Marketing Plan Outline to develop an effective strategic direction.
The Market Research Process is necessary to building a strong marketing program for your business.
The Importance and Definition of Marketing.
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Marketing and Life–Cycle
Marketing is a requirement for all businesses: without marketing strategies and tactics your business will struggle to survive.
Not all marketing activities are planned: you might be building your brand recognition through a social media campaign (that's marketing); you might be conducting market research to analyze your competitors and/or segment and target your potential market or to develop the most desirable features, advantages and benefits of your products or services (that's all marketing).
Marketing is pretty all–encompassing; and a challenge for many business owners. The additional challenge is recognizing that the different stages of your business life–cycle: start–up, mid–cycle, mature or late–in–life.
During start–up you need to develop your marketing strategies to grow sales; for example, you might want to use a market penetration pricing strategy to build sales quickly.
During mid–cycle, you need to grow your customer base (often through lead generation) and that need requires different marketing strategies, such as cold calling on prospective clients, email marketing, newsletter and blog sign ups and distribution (all to grow your list of prospects).
During the mature cycle, you need to build your marketing efforts around your brand; your competitive advantage can be in your reputation, history, and identity and on what differentiates your business from your competitors.
Marketing your products and services is not something that you do once (such as a marketing plan) and then never change or do again. You need to be continually researching and building your strategies and tactics to be ahead of the market, and ahead of your competition.
The market is constantly evolving; ever more rapidly with the impacts of globalization and technology. You need to invest resources into marketing to ensure that you build and sustain your business.
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Outsource Your Marketing
If you need support in your marketing efforts, or if you'd like a review of your marketing plan, contact us for more information on our marketing services.
If marketing is not your core strength, or if you don't have enough staff to commit to developing your marketing efforts (and acting on the plan), outsourcing your marketing strategy and implementation will allow you to concentrate on developing your business.
Start with a marketing plan that includes the necessary research, strategy development and implementation action plan. We provide you with the plan tactics, budget, schedule and key performance measurements.
Execute the plan yourself or have us at Voice Marketing Inc. manage the execution for you.
Once the plan is implemented, we report on the actions we've taken, the performance of the tactics employed, and on the results.
You'll feel confident that your business marketing is being effectively managed and continually evolving.
We specialize in providing services to small business owners and understand that marketing efforts must be customized for each business' unique needs.
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