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Recession branding Posts
What brands need to do: Fighting the Recession
August 29th, 2009
The principles of marketing in a recession are very different to those that work in better times.
And they aren’t all about discounting.
In recessions, consumers are confused, unhappy and very worried.
Brands that recognise this can prosper:
1. Offer certainty.
In uncertain times, consumers cling to certainty. Most brands struggle to project this as they tend to take their eye off their customer in tough times and focus on internal procedures like cost cutting. Brands that are a bit blurred around the edges then get blanked by consumers searching for confidence as they shop.
Review your brand proposition to ensure it promises the certainty that confused and desperate consumers crave.
2. Offer VALUE, not low prices.
But a cut price business doesn’t save anyone from recessions. Every second rate brand heads for this space at exactly the same time.
And in food, consumers don’t automatically switch to discount food brands in a recession – they move to supermarket private label. Only this week the CEO of ALDI UK was fired as they had failed to gain substantial market share during the recession. Whereas Waitrose, the bastion of middle class food shopping (and one of the most expensive) saw a 15% increase it it’s new ‘Essentials’ own label offer.
Don’t discount what made your brand great.
3. Don’t rely on habit
Habits get broken in recession. The consumers who bought your product last week may not necessarily buy it this week. They have woken up.
Ensure your brand is being bought for reasons other than habit.
4. Don’t be pointless.
In recessions, people don’t trade down. They just cut the pointless stuff out of their lives.
They cancel gym memberships they haven’t used since last Christmas. They cut out the ridiculously expensive bottle of wine. Or the pampering weekend break they thought they might take.
Make sure your brand is not a pointless purchase.
5. Beware of the Internet
As prices fall, consumers search out bargains. Watch out.
With price comparison sites, Goggle and eBay, consumers now have better bargain-hunting tools than ever before.
Watch your back.
6. Beware of ‘word of mouth’
In recessions, media budgets shrink and the chatter of brand’s users becomes even more important.
Bad word of mouth can kill a new film, music or software release within weeks. Bad reviews on Amazon, Expedia and other e-tail sites can do untold damage.
Make sure you monitor what’s going on.
7. Think in terms of price layers
People don’t automatically buy the cheapest thing in a recession. They are just more conscious of the value and price.
Alfred Sloan built General Motors during the Great Depression by segmenting the car market into six distinct price sectors and launching brands to match.
His ‘car for every pocket’ strategy allowed GM to seize leadership of the US car market during the 1930’s.
8. Promise better service
You get much nicer rooms in hotels in a recession. And better tables at restaurants. And more space on airlines.
Services can therefore promise customers better benefits in recessions.
If you run a restaurant, service is better because the staff have fewer customers to serve and more time to serve them. Staff are nicer to customers in a recession because they don’t want to lose their jobs.
Recessions are therefore the IDEAL time to ask people to try your service for the first time.
9. Do Flash Sales
If you are a retailer, do Flash Sales – sales lasting for 24 hours or less. They are much less expensive than a traditional sale because it only lasts 24 hours.
Or how about just setting up store for 24 hours? Flash Retailing has taken off in London in response to the recession, with Gucci, Mango, Apple and others taking the plunge.
Flash sales and retailing create a big buzz for your brand and the buzz lasts a lot longer than the 24 hours. Brands have found them highly effective in attracting consumer attention.
10. Look for opportunities
Google moved from being an unknown start up to being one of the world’s biggest companies during the tech-bust of 2000-2004.
Don’t assume that just because your brand is cutting innovation in a recession that your customers are. Watch out for big moves by strong competitors.
It isn’t recession that kills companies. Bankruptcies peak in the recovery period, when companies weakened by sales declines lose their compass.
Be ready to exploit the endgame.
11. Innovate and cut costs at the same time
It can be done.
Ryanair, the low cost Irish airline used sick bags on flights which doubled up as photo-processing envelopes.
Or Virgin Atlantic who used their sick bags to promote their virginpoker.com online betting site, with the memorable strapline ‘we don’t want you to chuck in your hands’…
In a recession you need to upgrade your communications to make up for a lower budget.
12. Recessions can be GOOD FOR YOU
Finally, marketers need to recognise that recessions can be an opportunity as well as a challenge.
Recessions clear the stage, and let new ideas be seen.
All you need are the ideas.
Have you noticed… the BBC have created a sub brand for the Credit Crunch?!
February 24th, 2009
Have you noticed that the BBC have a new sub brand?
It has has a new logo and always appears in the News. It’s called ‘recession’ and has a red squiggly line bouncing up and down (more down) with an arrow on the end.
So .. what will the next sub brand be? My insider tells me it could well be ‘recovery?’. The question mark is important but what’s the logo going to be …. the infamous green shoots…
But when will they start using this?? Meetings are still ongoing at the Beeb.
Then apparently there will be a ‘recovery’ sub brand so that we all enter into a new golden era…
Let’s wait and see what happens. No doubt Peston will enlighten us.