No Country For Old Marketing

If You're Pining For the "Good Ole Days", You're History In Today's Marketplace

By David Miranda

Pundits opine daily whether the country is in a recession or merely a "slowdown" as the President recently described the present economic malaise.

Whatever term one decides to use, the fact is that record foreclosures, credit card debt, trade and budget deficits, and gas prices; declining value of the dollar; 48 million uninsured citizens; soft housing market; a credit crunch and a volatile stock market set the stage make for a challenging time moving forward for marketers.

What companies will do is predictable - they will contract and adapt to survive or be added to the "endangered species list". In a slowdown or recession, there is a "culling of the herd".

In this environment, advertising and promotion will not solve their company's revenue problems. As a matter of fact, desperate measures by desperate competitors could exascerbate the problem.

This is no country for old marketing.

What to do?

1. Don't panic.


2. Recognize and protect your base (your most loyal and frequent customers) from being "poached" by competitors.


3. Improve your price/value offering to consumers, i.e. adding value rather than reducing price.


4. Manage "stratactically", i.e. although economic slowdowns are typically characterized by tactical warfare, always consider the strategic implications of your tactics. Example: reducing prices instead of adding value will have long term negative implications on revenue and margins.


5. Be proactive, not reactive. A "me-too" tactical approach, i.e. waiting to see what the other guys are doing, can be fatal in a hyper-competitive environment.


6. Amputate anything that is extraneous to success, i.e. products, services, people.


7. Get back to basics.

Now get on with it.

"Hark, I Hear The Cannon Roar!"

On Today's Marketing "Stage", Surprises Can Happen - And Will!

By David Miranda

Marketing today is full of surprises and the great marketers will adapt and succeed.

It reminds me of a joke I heard recently.

"Five-year-old Johnny came home from school one day with a note pinned to his shirt. His mother removed the note, which was from his teacher, informing her that Johnny had been chosen to be in the school's upcoming holiday play just one month away. The note said that Johnny would have one spoken line in the play and encouraged his mother to have him memorize the line. Johnny's line was 'Hark, I hear the cannon roar'. Johnny's mom was, of course, delighted and began immediately to rehearse the line with her son. Each day after school, Johnny's mom would have him repeat the line over and over again until it became second nature to him. She was confident Johnny would do brilliantly. On the night of the play, Johnny's parents and family were in the filled auditorium. Finally the moment came and the cannon on stage fired with a huge bang. Johnny shouted, 'What the hell was that?' "

There are a lot of marketing "Johnnies" (and "JoAnnes") out there. They prepare and plan for performances on the marketing "stage", confident that their preparation and planning will lead to success - and then the "cannon roars" - and it's dramatically different than they expected, i.e. "what the hell was that?" The "that" is the unexpected - the market shifted this way; competitors did this instead of that; the budget was cut; etc. etc.

Marketers today must be agile and resourceful to succeed in a marketplace with rapid shifts and turns. Surprises happen and the distinction between strategy and tactics has blurred. We live in a new world of "stratactical marketing". This is a world where strategy and tactics must be developed and executed simultaneously.

Don't be surprised - be prepared.