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. We continue a series of articles based on this paper. PART FOUR: Be imaginative.
IN A recession, says the CIM, you need to think more imaginatively than ever, finding ways to adapt to the new environment in order to maintain a decent client roster or customer base.
The CIM draws the analogy of a retailer providing automotive spare parts to illustrate this point.
“Because of the decline in new car sales, more people are hanging on to and driving older second-hand cars. The retailer could target this group of customers, encouraging them to buy their products as a means of saving money.”
Experiment, experiment, experiment, advises the CIM
It then outlines a further hypothetical example, of a computer equipment company that supplies new hardware to businesses: “Orders have been drying up because of the downturn, but they find new business in relocating firms' computer equipment to smaller premises, because so many of their customers are downsizing.”
Don't be afraid to experiment is a core CIM message. It points out that the upmarket sandwich chain Prêt A Manger “has used the climate to innovate and try all sorts of new activities; from new shop layouts that reflect changing customer needs, to a range of more ‘basic’ sandwiches at lower cost”.
By their own admission, the paper points out, not everything they have tried has worked, but it goes on to point out that most of it has, and that the important thing is that Prêt A Manger has learned along the way.
Consumers and clients ‘buying more individual items’
The white paper also notes how electronics companies – both in the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (C2C) sectors – report that customers and clients have been spending more money on individual items.
“While previously, consumers may have focused on middle or low-cost items in the knowledge that a more innovative product would come along in a few months' or years' time, they are now more interested in products that will see them through these hard times,” the report explains.
In conclusion, the CIM says that marketers with deep market insight, “as opposed to those focusing on quick tactical responses”, will be the winners in this sector. It adds that this shift from quick operational action to long-term sustainable change “is a welcome change for marketers in this sector”.
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9 Oct 2009
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