Recent article from MSNBC.Com "As Buyers Shift From Wants To Needs, Ads Follow" shows how some large companies really learned the lesson during the last recession when they shrunk the ad spend, their market share went with it...
"In the last big recession, in the early 1980s, consumer product companies simply shrunk their ad budgets, said John Greening, a 28-year advertising industry veteran and now an associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
But they can't afford to do that this time, as shoppers are shifting to lower-priced store brands, spending more at discounters, scraping the last dollop of face cream and buying more cheap canned goods and pasta."
So what is changing in the marketing tactics to maintain or grow markets share?...
"The new advertising is aimed not only at cashing in on the new frugality of recession-wary consumers but also fending off a flight to cheaper store brands. It also can maintain their share of a shrinking consumer-spending pie. In some cases, the ads are paying off with higher sales.
"In this 'Great Recession,' economy, companies are not simply changing the messages they place in their ads, they are doing something much more substantial," said Marc Fleishhacker, senior partner and managing director of OgilvyConsulting's North America practice. "They are fundamentally changing the products they promote."
"Marketers are focusing on "needs as opposed to wants," said Fleishhacker, who heads up the company's new recession marketing practice. He noted that companies are making strategic choices about where to spend their ad dollars in an effort to "increase market share even as the size of the overall market contracts."
This is a great article to use for seeding clients that have "hunkered down" and cut ad spend, it shows how changing the marketing strategy and product mix can result in double digit growth even during a recession.