As I write these words, Yahoo! Finance is screaming with this headline:
Wall Street tumbled Monday, joining a selloff around the world as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 400 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain
This happens after the 700BUSD bailout - and amidst the fight for Wachovia between Citibank and Wells-Fargo.
Google is almost 50% of its 52week high - Microsoft has breached the 25USD level. PG is relatively OK - although although early July, they were trading at around 62USD versus its current 70-72USD levels. IPG is down - way down - to less than 7USD after a 52week high of 10.76USD. OMC is also way off its 52week high of 53USD and is trading somewhere between 33-35USD. WPPGY at the NASDAQ is trading at 36-37USD, way off its 52week high of 73USD.
(I am writing this at 0038h SG time, 7th October.)
Things are not looking good.
So what's a marketer to do?
I am sure that we're going to be dusting off the charts that say "advertising during a recession actually is good for your brand - as it will show resilience when the market comes up and it will help your business weather the challenges".
To a certain extent, I believe in that adage. I have seen case studies and research that show that indeed, when brands advertise during recessions - and in spite of the financial difficulties that there may be in the market - they reap the returns.
But these are different times.
The last two crashes that I have witnessed were the 1997-1998 crash, which slowed down advertising significantly in the Southeast Asian region after the currency-devaluation crisis - and then there was SARS, which badly hit the markets of Hong Kong and Singapore (with Singapore's media adspends going down by as much as 15% - without taking into account inflation).
So what's a marketeer to do these days?
Cliche-ic as it may sound, but marketeers ought to get back to their consumers.
If companies are jitterry about the economic and business trends, more so are the consumers. And with the recent trends that have been happening to the biggies - the institutions that stood the test of time, supposedly, crumbling before the world's eyes - it is natural for consumers to be fearful.
And this is where marketeers should come in: Not so much to sell, but to placate, pacify, and empower.
If I were a marketeer, I would focus my efforts on those media channels that would help my brand remain in the lives of consumers - and play on a different role - that of an empowering catalyst. I would probably use CRM more effectively, segment my current customers - identifying those which are about to lose faith in my brand and those who are staunch believers. I'd probably recommend sending out different sets of messages - customized to their needs (yes, easier said than done - but doable and not impossible). And watch the spending.
From a macro-perspective, I'd probably focus on markets that are least vulnerable to the upheavals in the market. KInda difficult to do that now - considering that Asia is not without its own problems (cf. China's melamine problem). But Asia - specifically Southeast Asia's 700Mln+ people - would probably hold some importance right now. Relatively politically unstable, yes - but well, it's not "politics' per se that is the problem right now: it's businesses.
I don't who said it (I want to say David Ogilvy) - but I kinda recall someone saying "the media planner's secret weapon - when all else fails - is direct marketing".
In this day and age, I would expand that and say "the media planner's and marketeers' secret weapon these days - when all else fails and financials are getting squeezed - is 1to1 communications, in whatever form that may be: CRM, digital, events, search..."
And precision-targeting advertising.
(Forget the whims of the chairman and the board of directors and their media habits and morning-driving routes: it's your consumers/customers that really matter now.)
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