Marketing: first on the chopping block every time when the rough seas hit. Because, obviously it is a luxury, right? Maybe. Another way to look at it is that with fewer dollars out there in your clients' total budget pool you have to be more aggressive with marketing and PR just to fight for those remaining down-economy dollars.
That's my totally biased opinion. But it is a corroborated one.
Check out this article in last week's Houston Business Journal, Gain a competitive edge by marketing in a down economy, by lawyer Bill Boyar at Boyar & Miller here in town.
Boyar notes that: "...Slashing marketing can be a serious strategic and tactical mistake. Marketing your product or service is fundamental to the success of your company, regardless of the underlying economic conditions..."
Nobody can be convinced of this recession-time logic. You either believe it or you don't. If you don't, however, you forfeit your right to complain if our current economic recession shuffles the pecking order in your market to a landscape that leaves you hungry for the good old days.
