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Marketing Budget Cuts?
Outsmart When You Can't Outspend

Your marketing budget has been cut for next year—what do you do?

Don’t panic. While an unlimited marketing budget seems like the answer to many, there are ways to market your brand economically without letting it fade into obscurity. Hard times make it necessary to outsmart your competition when you can’t outspend them.

Effective Branding

If you’re lucky enough to have a brand, treat it like gold. If your company has just merged or is otherwise undergoing re-branding, you’ll have to create a brand. Though this can be difficult, it does present several unique advantages––not the least of which is the ability to dispel a negative brand image by effectively “wiping the slate clean.”

Your brand is the intangible sum of everything your company or products represent in the minds of your target market. As such, it has equity and is something you need to protect, vigorously––especially in tough economic times. In order to keep your brand at the top of your customers’ minds, it must constantly be nurtured and fed. To prevent it from fading away, there are several strategies to consider.

One method to raise, or at least maintain, your brand’s awareness is to identify a niche not currently occupied in the marketplace. In other words position your company or brand. Differentiate it from the competition.

Once you have assumed a unique position, it is crucial that you remain focused on your brand image. All brand marketing communications messages should be consistent and clear. Any deviation from your image will cause confusion in the minds of your customers and contribute to the eventual dilution of your brand. A consistent brand voice is even more important during lean times. If you can afford only a limited number of consumer brand executions (brochures, ads, etc.), make sure they work together to reinforce one another. If your executions look, sound or feel different, your limited voice will seem even smaller in an already crowded marketplace.

Another way to focus your brand is to communicate your message through one or two key service lines. If you highlight these centers of excellence, they will invariably cast a positive halo over your entire institution, effectively killing many birds with one or two stones. This can be tricky politically, but consider the alternative: if you spread your small budget across many service lines, you’ll fail to give any of them the attention they need to make an impact in consumers’ minds.

Practical Media Placement

No matter how compelling your creative executions, no matter how on-target your messages, all will be irrelevant if they fail to reach your target market. Hence, the irrefutable importance of effective media placement.

Demographic research is key. You must first make sure your medium matches your target audience. You must also make sure the medium matches the message. For instance, if your message is somewhat complicated, perhaps a print execution or direct-mail piece, both of which can be viewed and reviewed at leisure, would be the best choice. For a less-complicated branding message, a combination of radio and television might do the trick.