Marketing at the time financial slowdown

The Positive, Negative and Neutral side of the financial crisis on Marketing

It is very interesting to see how financial crisis, the world is facing currently will impact Marketing strategy /planning in terms of ad spends or choice of media vehicle among different verticals or organizations.

First set of people believe it will affect negatively as company are pressure to check spend across the department thereby reducing the impact on bottom line. Here marketing department will be on of the first department to see reducing spend on ads as already this set of people question the very effect of marketing spends and its contribution is increasing sales.
Second set of people believe that it will affect positively, as this financial situation see lots of M&A which company will need to communicate to the customer. In fact organizations compete more aggressively to get the share of few customers available. Organizations are compelled to think on product line extension by introducing new products to attract new customer will again need marketing to capture it.
Third set of people believe the marketing scenario will remain same. Here may be only the choise of media vehicle will change by becoming more customer focused. So spend on BTL related activities may see significant increase with decrease in ATL activities. As marketing is the prominent way to inform customer spend will be same.

Change in Marketing Approach:
Turning Suspects into Prospects into Buyers

You have to look at it on a client-by-client basis and value message is going to become a much bigger component of the overall messaging mix, said Andrew Robertson, president-CEO of BBDO Worldwide at Advertising Week's CNBC CEO Summit.
Mr. Brien, CEO of Mediabrands, said of the financial crisis: "Between natural-resource prices, the housing market, what's happening on Wall Street as well as technology and its impact on marketing, it's a more challenging environment in terms of turning suspects into prospects into buyers,"

The nature of marketing is going to be less about the vehicles we choose to target and how we use those vehicles," Mr. Brien said. "It's going to be more about the fact that we need to refine the persuasion-based activities we have all grown up with with user influence. This balance is going to challenge agency structures."

Consumer behavior

"Rightly or wrongly, the consumer trusts their peers more than they trust some of the most recognized publications," Mr. Gotlieb, CEO of Group M, said. "And because of that the communications today are not just about talking at the consumer. It's about managing their perception and trying to get them to participate in the discussion in a way that is favorable to your client. The challenge is none of us can do all of these things. What we have to get to is a single, integrated strategy that can be implemented by multiple entities. None of us has the ability to implement all of the components of that strategy."