We all know it’s tough out there, and marketing is almost always the first budget item to be cut when a recession starts to bite. To some, this might seem reasonable; after all, cutting marketing expenditure immediately puts pounds on net profit, and why should a company spend money chasing a shrinking market

As a marketer you will know just how important it is to continue with your marketing activities during tough trading conditions. If you don’t, if you need to boost your confidence in continuing with your marketing or if you want to give your financial director more reasons to loosen the purse strings, here are a few reasons why you should keep marketing during a recession:-

  1. A recession forces many companies to review their expenditure. This means that the pool of companies who might buy your product or service is larger than at any other point in the economic cycle – the more people who are looking to change, the more opportunities there are for you.
  2. In any market, if there is insufficient information about the choices available, many buyers will gravitate towards whoever shouts the loudest. With many companies choosing to cut their budgets in a recession this can be the time when campaigning to become market leader is the most affordable. And, if your competition is cutting back, you’re in a prime position to grab that market share.
  3. When times are good, people tend to be comfortable with what they are doing and who they are, so it is virtually impossible to break habits. Recessions challenge people’s values and question their behaviour. A recession is, therefore, a good time to suggest new ideas and new ways of doing things.
  4. For many marketers, the point of advertising and promotional activity is to keep reminding buyers of the reason they buy their particular company’s service or product. In a recession, buyers start to question their habitual buying decisions. This is when they need the reminders most.
  5. Surveys, research and analysis suggest that marketers who slash their budget in a recession can suffer the effects in terms of poor sales for another three to four years after. A decision to slash spending in a recession can have real long term negative implications for your business.
  6. In recessions, many people trade down. But if the number of people trading down to your product or service is greater than the number of people moving from you to the one below you, your sales will go up.
  7. The companies that fail in recessions are the disorganised ones with no direction, no strategy and poor management. Now is the time to persuade their customers they should come to you.

So, now you can return to your desk reinvigorated that you are doing the right thing, or you can copy this and paste it into your next budget proposal to the Board!