I must admit that at first I really didn't think that I really had that much to say when it came to my chosen profession. But as I laid in bed last night wide awake it seemed a never ending stream of thoughts came rushing to me. Everything from basic advertising and marketing principles to obscure industry facts that most small businesses aren't even aware of. I guess necessity truly is the mother of invention, or in my case inspiration.
With bleak news from Wall Street and other global markets today what is a small business to do? Me, today consisted of cold calls and follow ups. Slow economies aren't an ad man's best friend, that is unless they know what I know. I reached into my filing cabinet and dusted off some articles from recessions past.
Like this one from l-aadvertising.com circa 2001 titled "Should you cut advertising during a recession?" There's a great statement in bold in the second paragraph. "Cutting advertising may be a quick fix for the bottom line, but savvy marketers know it will be much less expensive to maintain market share now than to try and rebuild later."
It's too bad The Sharper Image didn't heed that advice, they recently filed for bankruptcy after slashing their ad budget according to an article in the August 4 Advertising Age Magazine. Mervyn's and Bennigan's where both mentioned in the article as well.
Kellogg over took Post as the dominate dry cereal provider when Post cut their advertising and Kellogg didn't during the depression of the 1930s. In 1975 Chevrolet increased its advertising for its economy models while Ford cut its spend by 14%. The result a 2% increase in market share that Ford still hadn't won back five years later.
Brad Williams, Marketing Manager, Levi Strauss & Co. said in 2001, "Don't allow short-term conditions to interrupt long-term goals."
I could ramble on for a while about this and I've got about a dozen articles and studies from the likes of Inc. magazine and CRM Associates. However I believe it is time for me to get off my soap box for the evening.
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