So, campers – make it through Monday without jumping out of a skyscraper? Good for you. The worst is yet to come, but don’t let me be a wet blanket. Plenty of blame to go around, too. No matter who wins in December, we’re really only electing somebody new to shoulder the blame. 

Now that we have a grip on reality, how’s your marketing looking? If you’re like me, you’re in the process of rethinking everything. I count among my clients a restaurateur. He thinks nothing will change, the old “people gotta eat” theory. That may as well be true, but the truth is, when people don’t have money they do still eat – but they don’t eat out, at least not as much. I have another client, a sporting goods shop. Will a recession threaten his business? You bet, if we’re talking about the price of ammo. I used to shoot 50 rounds a week, minimum, just to keep my skills up. Not now. I’m looking at buying a 22 pistol, just because the ammo is so much cheaper. I’ll bet his charter vacation business, ammo sales, and big-ticket items will be down. 

So what’s a marketeer to do?

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s times like these that separate the truly great marketing minds from the also-rans. Anybody can do at least a passable job of marketing a good product, company, or service in good times. In bad times, you actually have to know what you’re doing. 

So get out your tablets, sharpen your pencils and put on your thinking caps. Warm up your crystal balls, and if you’ve been keeping a notebook with good ideas that were not-ready-for-prime-time (you HAVE been, haven’t you?), now’s the time to get them out. 

From where I sit, the race will be not to the swift, but to the ones able to read the prevailing winds of change, and turn on a dime. Forget about “business as usual.” You need to be out there looking at any change in the market, no matter how small, and try to interpolate what it will mean for you. Read the blogs. Read the papers. Diversify your data sources. Network. Most of all, keep thinking. In this economy, you’re going to need every edge, and every advantage you can find. 

Good marketing, and good luck.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 10:18 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.