Seize the Day – Make the most of the recession and secure business success

Jason Lark, MD at data enhancement and hygiene specialist Celerity, looks at how the economic downturn could prove a positive effect on the marketing industry…

We could be forgiven at this time for believing that the marketing industry, like many others, is doomed to suffer disaster after disaster in 2009. Caught up in a downwards economic spiral, our industry is further condemned by the belief that marketing spend should be the ‘first thing to go’ when budgets are reviewed. The latter part of 2008 was blighted by instability, and marketers have no choice but to enter the coming year expecting the worst.

Yet there is light at the end of the tunnel. While the financial climate is undeniably a serious issue, and will certainly cause the industry problems in 2009, it can also be argued that it has had a positive effect on the way we work as marketers. While it has inevitably caused considerable upheaval, the onset of a recession has also encouraged clients to change their outlook and look closely at their strategies for the coming year.

There has never been a more important time for both brands and their agencies to assess, in detail, the way they communicate to consumers; from the content they create to the manner in which they target their messages. In order to ensure the best economic outcome, companies need to make absolutely certain that they are offering the best products and services possible, and that as a result, their customers will remain loyal. For agencies, this means getting the data right, creating engaging content and delivering client messages accurately and with maximum impact. Instead of worrying about possible problems and restrictions brought on by the current climate, marketers should be grasping the opportunities these circumstances provide.

The key change for both sides of the client/agency relationship this year will be to tackle channel integration seriously. No longer just a trendy buzzword, integration now stands for something much more serious; a way to consolidate costs and resources in order to get results faster, and with more accuracy and efficiency.

In order to minimise cost and maximise customer development and retention, companies need to fully integrate all of their touch-points and channels. In the ’90s and early ’00s large scale CRM deployments sought to address this, and for the main part failed in some degree. Now is not a time for failure; marketers must work on integrated solutions which make sure customers are engaged, satisfied and willing to return. We must remember that it’s not only businesses facing a recession, consumers are also feeling the pinch and becoming more selective about the products and services they interact with.

From the data perspective, real channel and touch-point integration can (and arguably should) be developed from the customer single view. This has historically been the ‘property’ of the marketing department and has consequently not realised its true potential. As organisations seek to exploit their data assets to the full, the customer single view is being seen as the natural platform for integration and profit maximisation.

If brands and their suppliers work hard to ensure that all communications are joined up through clever data collection, processing and storage, and consequently build campaigns that utilise all relevant channels, they will be in a strong position to weather the economic storm. Similarly, companies that use the current economic situation to focus on and invest in their customer management programmes will be in a better shape at the end of the crisis than those that just ‘pull in the drawbridge’ and hide away. Investment at the present time may be a scary concept, but time and money spent on streamlining processes and perfecting customer communication will be well worth it in the long term.