Advertising your way out of a recession.

Rick Stanton

Creative Director / Managing Partner, Stanton & Everybody Advertising + Design

I have been in the ad business for thirty-three years. In every decade I’ve toiled there has been a recession. And I can tell you unequivocally that every time it’s happened, the client who continued to put the peddle down lost less ground while it was going on and when it comes back, like it always does, they were way ahead and literally stole market share.

Balanced long-term brand support with promotions relevant to your brand create short-term sales opportunities.

There are more studies than one can read that show dramatic upticks even during recessions. For example, a study done by MarketSense in the 90’s showed that brands like Jif and Kraft Salad Dressing experienced sales growths of 57% and 70% respectively after increasing their ad budgets during the recession.

It’s easy to dismiss this thinking because it’s coming from someone in the advertising industry. But I can assure you, go online and you’ll see for yourself. Tactics are the key. Give people reasons to do business with you and not your competitors. Just make sure those promotional tactics fit your brand strategy.

There is no secret the car industry has taken a beating. And in the case of those manufacturers who actually make something someone might buy, fear and uncertainty have been a large part of the sales decline. So what did someone finally come up with?

If you lose your job, bring the car back. Brilliant. That’s giving people good reason to buy from them and it’s also demonstrating you can be part of the solution and not the problem. We suggested to one of our clients who sells luxury cars that for every car sold or leased in 2009 a dollar amount be donated to a very worthy charity that helps people in these times. It does something for the greater good and it takes a little of the guilt off for making the purchase. The buyer is also part of the solution.

There are a lot of buzz words people in our industry use to sound smart or make it seem they know something no one else does. I don’t do that. I speak plain, straight English.
It doesn’t work for everybody but it seems to for me. So here is my advice to all you advertisers out there …

DO NOT STOP ASKING FOR THE BUSINESS. DO NOT STOP ADVERTISING.