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WHITE PAPER
Why Branding Becomes
More Important In Uncertain Times
It's not unusual for business-to- Companies that hunker down publishing company. This is the time business companies to cut during hard times can frequently be to rethink what you've done before communications budgets when faced perceived as being on the ropes, no and reallocate your communications with uncertain times like economic matter the real status of their balance budget and resources in downturns, mergers/acquisitions, sheet. And, perception has a nasty acknowledgement of the changing reorganization, significant way of becoming reality, especially marketing communications competitive threats, technology in a prolonged downturn. (Your landscape; to begin to use media changes and the like. competitors will help that perception (message delivery) vehicles that along, if they can.) you can control. Today's new And yet, it is precisely these communications media offer a wide situations in which communications What's a B-to-B Company range of choices that might allow that support the brand are most to Do? Invest Wisely! you to maintain or even enhance helpful. If there's ever a time when The clear evidence is that companies your visibility with the same you need the strength, continuity, who continue to communicate and expense or perhaps even less.and support of a healthy brand, it's promote in hard times fare better when there's uncertainty. You might ask what your web site, during the downturn, and recover let alone blogs, podcasts, paid Harness the Power more quickly, gaining market share search, and other Web 2.0 tactics of Your Brand at the expense of their less aggressive have to do with branding. Our competitors. It's a lot like making There's good reason to support answer is, quite a bit. While investments during down times; it the enduring power of a brand in employed largely as response may be counter-intuitive but it's the uncertain times: in all but the most vehicles, all of these tactics have best time to invest - in your localized situations, it's not just one a branding element. In fact, we say portfolio or in your brand. company that finds itself in a bind, all communications, all experiences, it's an entire market or industry. So, That does not necessarily mean that all customer touch points have when your company is in trouble, you need to expand budgets, buy branding elements. your customers, channels, and trade magazine spreads, or do the competitors are often facing similar Your web site, the internet and same thing you've always done. difficulty. And, people who are all features associated with it allow Uncertain times are a great worried about sales, profits, or you to enhance and enrich the opportunity to rethink what jobs rarely take chances, usually experience that your marketplace you've been doing. going with a recognized brand has with you. This is the
they can trust. The current uncertain times present opportunity you want to maximize a particularly unique opportunity for every day, but especially in these The worse the times, the greater the B-to-B marketers. Technology has uncertain times.impact. No one's going to buy from a changed the B-to-B marketing company that is on the ropes, one By the way, you will also have communications landscape. You that might not survive an economic metrics that you have never had have available to you so many more downturn, unless they think it's a before to demonstrate a return on ways to communicate with your fire sale. So, the rich get richer and investment and have an answer the marketplace. Many of these new the poor get poorer. next time you are asked, "What am I channels don't require you to hand getting for all this money we spend over significant sums of money to a on marketing communications?"Eight Cost-Effective Ways to Keep Your Brand Top-of-Mind
1. Public relations. Press releases on new products, new applications, or new success stories are a great value, no matter what's happening. And, they show you're flourishing in a bad economy. (Can include self-published PR, SMPR, etc.)
2. Brand ambassadors. View your entire organization, not just marketing, as a branding medium. Sales and customer service people should be trained about the brand and equipped to present the brand message. Even your channel should be considered ambassadors for your brand. (Used to be ca... [download for more]
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