Blog posts tagged zen

Zen and the art of recession marketing

As a boy, I would try to work out cycling round-trips that were all downhill. Needless to say, it was a complete waste of time and effort. And many of our marketing responses to recession are in exactly the same spirit.

Marketers have flooded the channels with ‘recession-beating’ deals, as if this government-humbling downturn could somehow be beaten. Agencies present the recipe for ‘marketing in a recession’, which turns out to be pretty much the same as the one for marketing in a boom, but a bit smaller. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they.

We have an innate longing for growth, creation and gain. But to mature, we have to deal with the flip side – decline, destruction and loss. If we can’t accept that ‘all things must pass’, we’ll end up with what Buddhists call dukkha – a pervasive sense of ‘unsatisfactoriness’.

I’m not saying that the recession is a breeze. Nor am I laughing off the very real suffering it’s causing. I’m simply making the case for ‘skiing downhill’ by taking the opportunities that this unprecedented period presents, instead of trying to fight it or wish it away.

It’s a bad time to make money. But it could be a great time to make friends. B2B marketing that promises customers a useful working relationship, instead of trying to persuade them to spend, may have a better chance of success.

There’s nothing wrong with cutting prices, but don’t patronise customers by taking about ‘beating’ the recession. They’re not stupid, nor will they buy just because something is cheap.

Stay competitive, but keep communicating the value you offer too – even if people aren’t buying. Companies who do this successfully are the ones who emerge from recession with a dormant but loyal customer base ready to be reactivated.

As a copywriter, I’d make a strong case for writing as a key recession-marketing tool. Instead of splurging on media exposure, why not pick up a pen and quietly revisit your value proposition in the light of the new economic reality. You might turn up some great new marketing angles – or even ideas for more far-reaching changes that could help you go with the flow instead of wasting your energy swimming against the tide.