When Life Throws You Lemons, Make Lemonade!

Submitted by Molly Castelazo on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 19:30

Win by marketing when others aren't. Now that's a dollar well spent.

Research has proven time and again that those businesses that market themselves in economic hard times do drastically better than competitors who cut back on marketing.

“Companies that cut advertising, marketing research and other forms of marketing do worse following a downturn,” Anderson Analytics managing partner Tom Anderson told Direct. “This could be an opportunity for smart marketers to get rid of their competition.”*

In the seminal guide Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy explains research that showed how dramatically better companies did when they continued to advertise during the 1974-75 recession. “The companies that did not cut their advertising budgets did better in every year. By 1977, their sales had more than doubled, while sales had barely gone up 50 per cent for companies that cut their advertising.”**  And it wasn’t just sales that went up for companies that continued to market – net income (sales revenue minus expenses, like marketing expenditures) went up, too!


David Ogilvy chart comparing sales of companies that continue to market during recession and those that don't.

 

David Ogilvy chart comparing net income of companies that continue to market during recession and those that don't.

Source: Ogilvy On Advertising, p. 171.

The message? While spending money today can seem foolhardy – in this topsy-turvy economy it seems instinctual to take what we still have and hide it under the mattress. But in times like these, you actually have an amazing opportunity to out-do your competitors by marketing your services when they’re hunkered down, not marketing theirs.

How are you marketing yourself in this rough economy?  Post a comment and join the discussion!

 

Molly Castelazo

Castelazo Marketing Ltd.

July 20, 2009

 

Learn More

www.cmrealestatemarketing.com

molly@cmrealestatemarketing.com

480-987-7958

Become a fan! Castelazo Marketing Ltd. on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter! 

 

* Levey, Richard H. “Just the Basics.” Direct, March 2009, p. 7.

** Ogilvy, David. Ogilvy On Advertising. New York: Random House (1983), p. 171.