 t's obvious that the crisis of trust, that is deeply affecting the whole economic and social system at a global level, doesn't leave marketers behind. |
| Frightened by uncertainty within the marketplace and by the difficulties of making forecasts that can be relied upon, companies reacted by providing detailed Business Plans, defining objectives and the marketing means to reach them. |
| Furthermore, this loss of trust, as a consequence, makes marketers question traditional approaches and the tools available to reach the objectives that they have defined for 2009. The result is extreme (let's even say excessive) caution. |
| The budgets that marketing managers have as of today, might be managed along the following lines "despite knowing the return on each invested euro, better not to invest. At least, I'm sure nobody will blame me for having vainly spread the money I saved". |
| And if this behavior means that marketers don't reach their objectives, no matter: it's because of the recession. |
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| And, as usual, in the face of this menace, the traditional agencies don't stop repeating that the future will be wonderful for those who have the courage (or the foolhardiness?) to go on investing as if nothing has changed. Obviously, neither of these extreme choices represents the best behavior. |
| Pretending that a pre-packaged solution exists is nonsense. Further, the search for specific solutions for each different business model is not based on a blank sheet. On the contrary, as an example, the radical change in consumers' behavior, which concerns media usage, purchases, interaction with brands, need for acknowledgement and relation, and which were already developing before the economic hardship, are now further emphasized by it. |
| For this reason, the most advanced agencies and advertisers have already started analyzing and measuring these changes, in order to integrate them in responsible, performance marketing and communication strategies. |
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| Besides, one aspect definitely affected by consumers' change is its detachment regarding "dose-metric" traditional models. This old philosophy proclaims that repetition means persuasion and adhesion, which obviously will be as deep and long-lasting as repetition (and investment). |
| But the fact we shall consider is that, with this new consumer, big budgets don't work. So, probably, it's not even more necessary to have them to reach our target. |
| What about "stop investing more and start investing better?" What we save from repetition reduction, could be used on dialogue, content and meaning. |
Have you ever thought that these lowered 2009 budgets could still be wide enough (or even too large) to reach your objectives?
Anne Browaeys |
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