The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is the world’s largest organization for professional marketers. Its white paper, ‘Keep calm and carry on Marketing’, is the definitive guide to marketing in a recession. Here, we begin a series of articles based on this paper. PART ONE: Why marketing in a recession is absolutely mission critical.

Some say we’re coming out of recession, some feel the worst is yet to come. What no one can dispute, however, is that conditions remain difficult for many business, in many sectors, in many countries. There were 2,428 insolvencies in the last quarter of 2008 in the UK alone.

Bill Gates famously said if he were down to his last dollar, he’d spend it on marketing, but as companies feel the squeeze, it is marketing budgets that are often the first place organizations look to make cuts, laments the CIM.

“There are many reasons why companies that survive a recession are those who keep investing in and committing to their marketing,” the CIM writes in its white paper.

It goes on to outline five factors that businesses fighting recession ignore at their peril:

1. Clients don’t stop buying in a recession
Clients and customers don’t stop buying in a downturn – they just buy more safely. Those companies that maintain or increase marketing spend are able to focus on projecting the confidence and innovation necessary to provide buyers with the reassurance that they are making the right decision.

2. Communicate clearly in a downturn
It’s vital to communicate effectively during a recession, else how will customers know what you can offer them?

3. Stop rivals from taking all your clients
Surviving recession means placing a stronger emphasis than ever on stopping your clients and customers moving to the competition, to achieve this, says the CIM, “you need to reassure them that you're on their side, and to differentiate yourself from the competition”.

4. Adapt to client needs and customer needs
You must adapt to changing market and customer needs, urges the CIM, adding: “Indeed, if there's one thing that will separate the wheat from the chaff during this recession it is adaptability.

5. Discounting your way out of recession is folly
All-too-obvious alternatives to marketing can actually destroy your business, warns the CIM. “If for example you fall into heavy discounting as a short-term substitute for marketing, you may increase sales in the immediate future, but the long-term outcome will be a devaluing of your brand and lower profits.”

6. Use the internet to escape recession
The internet can also widen the escape route out of recession, says the CIM: “One of the key differences for marketers between this recession and the last is the growth of the internet as a cost-effective, measurable platform to test rnessaging and gain consumer insight.”

In conclusion, the white paper states: “The reality is that marketing has the power to stop a business being caught like a rabbit in headlights.

In fact, it is the creative marketer, ripe with innovation, imagination and, of course, the right budget, who grasps the recession as an opportunity.”

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