Beat the Recession with Your Advertising

Notice And Engage “The Smaller Is Better” Crowd

The 1980's and 1990's were times where bigger was better. Bigger houses, bigger salaries, and bigger cars were the products of choice in the marketplace with excess money to spend. This decade is when many made the choice to come back to more compact lifestyles, whether by choice or through conscience. If you are in a luxury market, you will have to start to engage a different set of values and modify your inventory to take into account less discretionary income in your customers’ pockets.

Trading Down In Size, Not Quality

Even so, Americans are still consumers with very refined tastes. You may find people are being forced to reduce their lattes at Starbucks to once a week, rather than every day. You may find that someone opts to downsize to a town home, but the quality will still be on the higher end. The point is that these consumers are going to make choices to make do with less square footage, but won't be as easily persuaded to give up the quality they've come to expect. That's one habit that will take severe economic distress to break. Once that happens, it's possible they won't even be able to afford to purchase a substitute, so they aren’t in your demographics anyways.

Advertise Quality And Value

For these consumers, they want to go with some of the same products and brands they've come to know and love. They just may not want to buy it in the same quantity or size until the economy improves. There's a couple of ways you can persuade them to still let go of their dollars. You can offer value packages with more product and offer discount volume pricing to persuade them to close the sale. Another strategy is to just create smaller packages that allow the consumer to buy less over a longer period of time.

Trying To Target What Your Consumers Want

The only way to find out which option is better is to have a campaign that targets the two different strategies. You can promote the value package and see how well it performs; if it fails to make a sale, then show them the smaller version, less pricey option. Or you can introduce the smaller item first; if they are willing to purchase, offer them a volume discount for buying the bundled package instead. Either way, you are trying to give the customer choices to either downsize or get a better price for buying more. To learn more just follow the link below.

http://www.mattmare.com/recession

Carpe Diem - Sieze the day!

Matt Maré
Founder of CapturePros.com

Be Upbeat In Your Advertising

There's definitely enough bad news in papers, on television, and on the Internet. There's no reason that your advertising has to take on the same downbeat tones. In tough economic times, it can be hard to find just the right note to address your customers. You don't want to be Pollyanna-happy, but you also don't want to be crying in your coffee either. Since there is so much bad news all around, you will find people actually appreciate a little whimsical and a lot of positive and upbeat messages. It doesn't mean you can't be realistic; it just means you want to maintain a positive presence that is hopeful and caring.

Humor Sells

If you can find ways to help lighten the mood, humor can be a powerful force in advertising. People tend to remember spots that were funny and gave them a chuckle for the day. There is humor in many everyday things and there's no reason you can't poke a little fun at the bad things too. With all the news about CEOs being forced to tighten their purse strings, you can even see ads with this as a humorous element. One airline ad shows a CEO who now has to fly economy class and who struggles with his own bags or with getting his ticket at the counter. It becomes a cultural classic and helps everyone to identify with the airline as someone that can even laugh in bad times.

Spread A Little Sunshine

Is there some benefit to your products and services that actually improve the lives of your customers, even as they go through bad times? Make sure to communicate the positive and “feel good” benefits to your customers. When people get depressed, they do tend to turn naturally towards things that can help them forget their troubles for a moment. If that applies to your product and benefits, then be sure to sell that benefit loud and clear.

Picture A Better Future

The present moment may not be much fun for a lot of consumers. If they get to fantasize or imagine a brighter future, it can be one way to dispel the misery of the present moment. It also has a way of engaging people's appreciation that naturally creates a cycle of thankfulness and gratitude. Send out a hopeful message with your advertising and you might inspire people to believe that things can get better by doing business with someone like you.


I have put my own advice to the test and can now offer you a way in which you can advertise in this troubled times. Have a look at it by following the link below.

Carpe Diem - Sieze the day!

Matt Maré
http://www.mattmare.com/recession