The economic downturn has many small business marketers stampeding the exits, slashing budgets and cutting prices.
Though understandable, and rational, this full-on retreat is in most cases occurring too late.
Planning for a storm is far more effective than looking for an umbrella when you're already wet.
The point is not that too little planning was done in the run-up to the recession, which hit everyone harder than expected. The point is to avoid the same mistake in reverse.
It's time to start planning now for the end of the recession.
"But we're just getting used to the new normal," many business owners may say. Exactly. Because so many entrepreneurs and SMBs will be focused on manoeuvring through 2009, this is an excellent time to craft a 12-to 24-month get-out-front-of-competitors marketing strategy.
There are many components to any marketing strategy. For a post-recession marketing plan, three pieces really matter: who, when, and how.
Understanding customers (the who) and the changes in their behaviour is the first step. This assessment will tell you how to position your products or services, but not the timing (the when) of your market bounce back. So sorting out where you sit in the economic pecking order comes next.
Finally, getting products and services to market may change. So projecting channel dynamics (the how of retail, distribution, Web and so on) a year or two from now is also a key elements of the overall strategy.
Understand changes in customer behaviour
Solid marketing strategies start with answers to customer needs and wants, that is, customer behaviour rather than demographics ("I'm just tired and frustrated, and I'm making a decision not easily predicted by my age, sex and income").
To plan for a rebound, small business marketers have to understand which behaviours have changed, and why.
Getting a handle on the motivations behind the changes allows for creative responses, now and later. More importantly, marketers have to assess which changes are likely temporary, versus those which are liable to be more permanent.
The clues needed to make this call tend to be grouped into selection and habit buckets.
A behavioural change tied to selection, such as opting for a less-expensive hotel, is probably temporary. A habit change, such as buying groceries rather than dining out four nights a week, is more likely to be lasting. If such changes were true, boutique hoteliers could plan to weather the storm and grocers could beef up (pun definitely intended) for a strong market, post-recession.
It's no good to simply look at generic consumer or business-to-business purchase data. Customer behaviour needs to put under the microscope in the context of the company and industry in question. But owners have to intimately know their own customers, and what has changed, inside out. There are many ways to get these insights, but they all start with conversations.
Savvy marketers are constantly engaging customers in discussions about products and services, and about themselves: their pain points and what would make them happy. Some walk the aisles and talk to customers at random.
Others build panels of folks they re-engage often. Many rely on traditional market research. The tools matter less than getting on with it.
Understand the pecking order
Planning to meet customers on their terms is one thing. Timing it correctly is another altogether. The world economy will not bounce back all at once, everywhere.
Trying to predict the timing of the return of consumer confidence is a bit like filling out your Final Four pool sheet: if you have been paying attention and do some research you'll do okay, but you'll never nail it exactly. Some economists predict late 2009, others 2011 or beyond.
