Marketing strategy: Recession

 

Blue-chip FMCG companies, such as Unilever, P&G and Cadbury, can improve their relationship with the City by changing their reporting on marketing budgets from half-yearly to quarterly, or by issuing ...

Market turbulence and consumers’ ever-changing needs are forcing marketers to ‘speed up’. Consumers are focused on reducing personal debt, rather than buying new goods. Accountants are in charge of th ...

Top management has many things to consider over the course of this recession, but Chris Halliburton argues that CEOs are the ultimate brand managers and all actions should be taken with that responsib

In the gloom of the current economic downturn, many brands are failing to change how they approach consumers, but a few are attempting to encourage and lift spirits. A semiotic look at current strateg

When sales are down and budgets are cut, it would seem that the most important thing for a business to do is to focus on survival, not plan for growth. But recovery will come, and marketers who are no ...

This article argues that in a recession branding, and brand management, become more important, not less; recession provided opportunity for those companies which understand this. In recession, not onl

This article predicts that continued recession may mean the demise of the traditional advertising agency. Clients' budgets are squeezed and have to work harder. They continue to support their brand wi

In the recession people are turning to cheaper products, and often finding that they are as good as, or even better than, the more expensive versions (example: Aldi and Lidl, the discount stores). Suc

In good times, as companies grow, it is all too easy for them to lose touch with their customers, without being aware of it. In times of recession the risk becomes greater and more obvious: people thi

Being asked to cut budget is a sign that a marketer is unable to prove the financial value of the investment. Continuous measurement is thus essential, and nowadays possible. How to cut in the absence

This paper argues that conventional wisdom about how to cut budgets in recession is flawed, and outlines the best approach for marketers. 1) Establish why cuts are required: usually survival, need for

Budget-cutting should be done carefully and strategically, with an eye to the future. Funds should be allocated to those activities necessary to preserve the foundation of future success. Key points:

A ready-reckoner to help assess whether a marketing budget is liable to be cut in recession. The lower the score on the five questions, the more vulnerable the budget will be. The questions all turn o

Budget and resource allocation decisions require careful, disciplined thinking, especially in times of downturn. Spending aggressively to gain share, or to match share of voice, is not risk-free: the

In their analysis of IPA case histories published in 2007 (Marketing in the Era of Accountability), the authors found that metrics commonly used to drive accountability were flawed and led to ineffici

This article reports survey findings that in spite of the recession consumers, though shopping less, still engage in leisure activities that are important to them, especially in terms of experiences, ...

The author argues for the importance of brand valuation. Brands with high values or strengths are proved to be the best survivors in recession: they not only generate higher sales and price retention, ...

The article discusses the problems of the airline industry in recession. There have been many failures and there will be more consolidations, but the most innovative will thrive. Successful airlines w

The article describes a research project for the bank HSBC into people's attitudes to the financial situation. The project, started in August 2008, was originally intended to look at the credit crunch

The article discusses what can be learnt from previous recessions to help cope with the current one. The paper has two parts: 1) a study of data from the recessions of 1974-75, 1980-81 and 1990-91, an

This article discusses the top downloads among WARC Online's users in 2008, breaking them down by region, company type and search terms. Recession enjoyed an unsurprising prominence across all categor ...

Six industry leaders (from WPP, Aegis, Lastminute.com. Publicis, Starcom and Bird's Eye Iglo) give advice on how to meet the challenge of the recession. It is suggested that there will be growth in Br

This paper revisits the classic Barclaycard IPA Gold-winning case study from 1996, which tells the story of how the credit card brand bucked the recession of the early 1990s. It also draws out some ke ...

Richard Storey outlines research from M&C Saatchi that divides UK consumers into eight different categories, according to their attitudes to and behaviour during recession. The spending of 'Crash Diet ...

This article discusses the key findings from the latest European Entertainment Futures report from the Future Foundation research consortium, which explores the trends impacting on European consumers' ...

As the credit crunch bites, shopper behaviour is changing rapidly, as are the strategies adopted by leading retailers. At the same time, manufacturers' marketing budgets are under intense scrutiny, an ...

Sustainability need not be in conflict with good value for consumers in economically straitened times. In this article, Marie Ridgley, Added Value UK, outlines four models for brands adopting sustaina ...

While some marketers begin to start the uphill struggle against restricted promotional budgets, some brands have always had to operate on limited resources. In this article, Adam Morgan argues that ra ...

As the economic downturn begins to exert an impact, it is little wonder that investors and managers are preoccupied by the threat posed by 'trading down' to lower-priced brands. Such fears have always ...

This article, by Jeremy Bullmore, originally appeared in the very first issue of Market Leader in March 1998, during a period of frenzied talk about an imminent recession. Based on an analysis of prev ...