news item
06.05.2009
let’s not waste a good crisis!
Every cloud has a silver lining - businesses can thrive as well as survive in the current downturn.
Let’s not waste a good crisis - said Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s chief of staff, a few months ago. If your response to the economic situation is to batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to pass, then you are missing a trick. ‘The winners will be those prepared to adapt and innovate to changing business opportunities’, says Richard Collyer, of Odiham based marketing and design agency, rhc.
Innovation has long been seen by economists as the engine of economic growth during recession. ‘During a recession, customer needs and market conditions change - fast. This creates opportunities for companies prepared to innovate’, says Collyer. Product innovations during recession include radar and the jet engine (both during wartime), freeze-dried coffee, the iPod, MTV, Monopoly, parking meters, photocopiers and Polaroid cameras.
If you’re not appearing, you’re disappearing!
However, innovation need not be limited to new products and technologies. ‘Innovation can take place in any part of the business, and especially in marketing communications’, explains Collyer, who argues that quick wins can be found by making your marketing activities and assets work harder and smarter. ‘This is particularly important when costs are under scrutiny. To reduce marketing spend can be counter-productive - many studies have shown that companies who maintain their advertising and marketing spend during recession emerge stronger. So much better to identify, act and respond to changing customer needs, while your competitors freeze and stagnate’, says Collyer. By way of example, he suggests the following four areas for marketing innovation.
Build stronger customer relationships
In a downturn, it is especially important to be obsessed with your customers. In practical terms, the first stage is to understand your customers - which individuals are involved, what are their needs, what do they value? As a result, you will be better placed to exceed customer expectations, making improvements where needed and strengthening relationships.
Once you’ve identified all points of customer contact, think how to improve your communication with them. This means overlaying personal contact with direct communications such as mail and newsletters. Think too of whether your customers can help you with referrals and recommendations.
Improve the customer experience
Only 100% customer satisfaction is sufficient to retain customer loyalty. Therefore, it is important to appreciate the customer experience, and use this understanding to improve customer communications and service. For Center Parcs, rhc identified the importance of managing the experience of first-time customers, as this was a significant influence on customer satisfaction, spend and repeat business. Improved communications before, during and after arrival were created by rhc, leading to real business benefits.
Enhance your brand image. During a downturn, organisations must look confident and remain up-to-date. This helps retain current customers and attract new ones. Find out what customers think about your business and brand, and evaluate all the various stimuli that create that brand image. Your website, brochures, mailings or advertising can all be creatively refreshed, to ensure your value proposition and brand image remain powerful and relevant.
Re-evaluate your online presence
Online advertising expenditure grew by 17% in 2008, at the expense of traditional advertising. Online marketing can be extremely cost-effective, and is relatively easy to test, measure and adapt. Today online advertising and your own website are just the tip of an ever increasing online iceberg, which businesses ignore at their peril.
Collyer cites netsetgo, rhc’s own web-based project management system. When launched a few years ago, rhc clients were able to review creative work and project status in real time, 24/7. Additionally, rhc were immediately appointed by a new client, impressed by the many benefits that this innovation offered.
Innovation is often kick-started by people with an external, customer-driven, perspective. For example, neither Richard Branson nor Stelios Haji-Ioannou had ever worked in the airline industry. Collyer suggests that a good agency can perform a similar role, stating that “your marketing or design agency should have the ability and experience to help you understand your customers, and then to plan and execute the most appropriate and cost-effective marketing communications plan to help achieve your objectives.”
Crunch Time
The business landscape has changed radically over the last year and those waiting for a return to the good old days are in for a shock. It’s never going back to the way it was. The economy is almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better - so the steps you need to take to both SURVIVE and THRIVE need to be put into place NOW. A few years ago, becoming excellent at Marketing, Internet Marketing and Sales was just an option for most business owners. Now it’s THE key to survival. Collyer goes on to say, ‘the greatest untapped opportunity I see in businesses every day is their websites and online strategy. If you are 100% happy with your website, congratulations. But ask your customers if they are happy with your website. Assuming they can find it! I think you’ll discover it should be doing more for both your customer and your business. So act fast, because complacency online is killing too many good businesses’.
Adapt and Thrive
The rules of Marketing and Selling have changed forever. That’s not a problem IF you understand how they’ve changed and can quickly learn the new rules. Do you have everything you need to adapt and take advantage ahead of your competition?
An upbeat Collyer remarks, ‘There are many businesses doing extremely well at the moment. I’ve known some of them for several years and it’s because they have worked so effectively adapting their Marketing mix to reflect the ever-changing economy. They don’t think of the change as a threat, rather as an opportunity to thrive.’
Article as featured in the May 09 issue of Thmas Valley Business Magazine.
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