We're all hearing daily that the economy is in turmoil. People are spending less, weekly living costs climbing. Businesses are tightening their budgets, redundancies are on the rise. Yes, some business sectors are tightening their budgets, yet we must avoid falling into the trap of cutting our marketing and promotions budgets.One of the true greats of the advertising world, Leo Burnett, would no doubt chuckle to himself over businesses who are slashing their marketing and promotions budgets. Who's this Leo Burnett?
It was during the Great Depression (1935) that Leo Burnett decided to set up an advertising agency in Chicago.
People must have thought he had lost the 'plot'; some were even bold enough to suggest he would wind up as a street vendor, selling apples. He didn't take their knocking and is reported to have said "not only will I not do that, but I'll give them away".
To cut a long story short, Leo Burnett built itself into one of the largest agencies in the world. Even now, 80 some years later it is still out there, and doing well in the market (ranked as the 9th largest agency in the world). All because Leo Burnett didn't give into the woes and listened to himself, and his own ambitions.
Don't you slash or stop your promotions budgets, don't give in.
What we are seeing is that some businesses are uncertain of what they should be doing, some are tightening their belts, cutting back on expenditure. But an area of business expense you should really think hard about before cutting back here, is that of marketing and promotion. Spend some of the quieter moments you may experience planning, setting goals, targets, use the time to cement your business plans. Learn new things, retrain make this a productive time.
And don’t forget to keep prospecting and branding your business, and the time when you are reviewing your business plan, take a look at the marketing section, see where you are now, strategise on where you want to be, how you are going to keep your name out there, how you will ensure your name will be at the top of the list when your customers are ready to buy.
People still want to do business and when they are ready they will be looking - you need to be visible. Keep your name out there; don't hide away - Stay Visible!!
