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by Mike Abel (@abelmike) Some things have me a tad concerned right now about our economy. Here are the simple facts: South Africans are optimists. We definitely don’t have a savings culture. Never have.“Moenieworrienie. Allessalregkom” (“She’ll be right, mate” as they say down-unda).

Mike AbelBleeding obvious

For some of you, this may be bleeding obvious but it is still worth a reflection: With South Africans having had easy access to easy money for a decade and with the stock market having been at record highs, most of our kinsmen have maxed out on credit at lower interest rates and with a growing economy.

The Rand, until six or so months ago, was doing generally ok. A poor Rand on the downside now means literally everything will cost us more. The only possible benefit is growth in export, and thereby more hard currency and job creation.

Interest rates are climbing and are likely to continue to do so. Therefore, if people are at their absolute credit threshold at the current interest rates, what will be the impact of increases in house and car payments, the petrol price and basics? The answer is obvious.

Always the first casualty

What will advertisers do? A shortage of cash usually impacts sales and, with that, marketing spend is always the first casualty.

Here’s the first fault: looking through a prism of marketing spend versus marketing investment. It’s marketing spend if you are simply telling your existing market what they already know about your business, ie your messaging is more of the same, with a few tweaks.

It’s marketing investment if you are sharing relevant new benefits with your existing customers to retain and grow them (often an effective defensive growth strategy) and you are investing to attract new customers from fresh ponds to your brand and business (usually an offensive strategy).

Truth is, no matter how you throw the ball in the air, if you don’t spend more on retention and attraction strategies during tough times, it’s going to land on predetermining a poor business outcome. It doesn’t get more basic than that.

Explore your marketing strategies

So, the thing to truly explore is your actual marketing strategies. And when I say marketing, I’m not referring just to advertising; we’re talking product, pricing, distribution and channel here as well. Unfortunately it needs to be said, as most marketing today is simply, and sadly, communications.

If there’s less cash around, how do you make your fees more compelling? How do you offer responsible access to bridging finance — not more rope but actual help? If you’re a car company, how do you position yourself to encourage customers to trade down but get them into your brand, to punt your service and parts offering? For retailers, how do you push your value drivers, create new aspirational cheap-chic brands that give you the look without the bite?

Customers will be looking for help in the form of those who allow them to best retain their lifestyles but at more-cost effective rates. Restaurants can put fun “budget dinners” together and change their wine lists. The options are literally endless if you embrace tough times.

Real value vs distress marketing

Now is the moment, just before the ‘drizzle’ starts, to develop and adopt aggressive market-share offensive strategies which are specifically ‘tough-time’ friendly. These must provide customers with real value versus distress marketing tactics or margin erosion. So,rather create a calculated strategic plan that seeks sustainable business solutions through a protracted and unfriendly trading environment.

The one thing we must encourage customers never to do is stop their health insurance, their retirement annuities and trade down on education. The long- (or even potentially short-) term results will be disastrous — and often unrecoverable.

Banks and life companies need to educate and help their customers ahead of and through these times.
As an old friend of mine once said,“If you were there for the wedding, then be at the funeral”— in marketing terms, when the economy turns, and it will, there will be another wedding. But don’t send out the diary blocker just yet.

This is the time to start thinking far less about awareness ads (which probably make up 90% of what we see) and to think much more about smart and creative defensive and offensive strategies. This will be the ark that navigates you through the coming storms.

Mike Abel (@abelmike) is founder and chief executive of M&C Saatchi Abel. This article has been republished with permission from Mike’s blog, Mike & Friends.

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Published by Herman Manson

MarkLives.com is edited by Herman Manson. Follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/marklives

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