MediaPost's article " Say No To More Recession Talk" brought some interesting facts to light about how companies look at opportunities to gain market share and sales....
Inevitably, in such a challenging (and changing) environment, many businesses have trended toward batten-the-hatches, slash-the-budget tactics. But in these actions, they may have failed to see that strategic positioning and public relations could actually help their companies gain market share, increase sales, and experience organic growth. You may think I'm biased, but when we look at recent history, we see such opportunities have indeed arisen out of uncertainty:
- Sears surpassed Montgomery Ward during World War II
- Kellogg overtook Post in the breakfast cereal market during the Depression
- Revlon and Phillip Morris gained market share in the '70s recession
- Taco Bell and Pizza Hut gained share from McDonald's during the '90-91 recession
- In the 2001 slowdown, Apple, which had languished as a second-place player in the personal computing business, launched the iPod and revolutionized its business model, and, well, us
- During the 1991 recession, PR spending actually increased across the U.S.: as a result, twice as many companies climbed from the bottom of their industries to the top"
Effective PR could be a great tool to help your clients bring themselves to the next level to break out of the recession.