Timing Isn’t the Only Thing….. It’s Everything.
The expression “you fish where the fish are” is an appropriate strategy for agencies and advertisers to undertake when faced with a declining and often hostile market. However, before overreacting to declining sales, marketers need to take a step back and do some homework. You cannot afford to be so brand-oriented that you lose focus of the direct response components that deliver ROI.
The first step marketers need to take is to evaluate the current market conditions –and specifically their advertising category. If sales are down for all companies in your category and other industries are suffering as well, then put aside knee-jerk tendencies and develop a carefully thought-out plan.
One frequent mistake that many advertisers make after they’ve invested a lot of time and money in a long-term strategic re-branding campaign that is in the early stages of launching is to hold steadily with the new creative execution, even though the market circumstances may have changed since the new branding concept was conceived. You cannot afford to be so vested in the new direction that you ignore signs it may not be working, and go down the wrong path. There are a lot of reasons to re-brand, many of which over time will increase a brand’s market share. But timing is everything. Make sure that you have the right message for the right time, or your brand will sink faster than the Titanic. Invest in what is working, not what supports your ego.
You will want to keep track of what your competitors are doing from a creative, offer and media perspective. That information is helpful in positioning your brand against them. For example, if they are increasing their media expenditure, you need to evaluate how to combat it. This intelligence should never drive your overall decisions, but can help you fine-tune your execution in a tight market.
The number one priority in these hostile market conditions is maintaining market share. This means that your company’s advertising and marketing efforts need to work harder to get each order or lead. While you can’t control the market conditions, there are three key areas that are under your control: Creative, Media and Operations.
Creative
The first crucial decision is not to make too many changes at one time.
Ask yourself if the creative is working as hard as it can? Cut any fluff out of the executions and get back to the basics of selling your product. One key element that can have an immediate impact is making sure that your offer is as compelling as possible and review how you sell the offer. Be more sensitive to consumers’ needs. Those needs may have changed as the market has changed.
Determine if the offer can be improved from a consumer standpoint. Then undertake re-packaging how you market it. It’s all about the presentation—not unlike the choice of wrapping your spouse’s holiday gift in newspaper or tin foil, instead of beautiful gift paper. No matter what is inside of the box, you are already behind the Eight Ball…as I have on occasional learned the hard way with my wife! It doesn’t cost much more to present and package your offer in the best light possible.
Be very cautious in testing new, unproven creative concepts. It is very common that because a marketer’s business is down, the company immediately blames the agency and/or media company, then conducts a fifteen-minute creative review and hires a new agency to save the day. If you insist on blaming the agency under these conditions, at least first test the new creative with a well-thought out matrix. Make sure that the new executions are at least delivering the same results and that the message is resonating with consumers and properly positioning and branding the company. Just remember, however, that some things are just out of your and the agency’s control. It’s more about being flexible, setting reasonable new goals, and then adjusting your expectations to the economy.
In a down market, another often-successful strategy is to reintroduce older creative (sometimes requiring minor modifications to the messaging) that has not been used for a while, but was always a great producer.
Media
In a declining market the first key is that you have to buy even smarter. By definition a DRTV advertiser should not have any fat in its schedules – but all advertisers can optimize their efforts more effectively. Reevaluate your advertising mix. Don’t speculate on what’s working and what’s not when you begin to see trends developing. Cut your losses early. For example, billboards support a message and can be effective for the right category and large budgets, but they don’t add anything to the immediate bottom line.
In some advertising categories’ response rates to shorter spot lengths can be just as effective as with longer versions. Consider increasing reach and frequency by relying on shorter executions.
Operations
Weather out the storm and cut as many admin and overhead expenses as you can. This is survival mode – but don’t reduce your SOV (share of voice) and run too thin operationally that you are not effectively running your business. We refer to this strategy as “Hibernation Mode.” But be careful, because eventually the economy will wake up and you need to make sure that you are positioned for growth with enough internal resources to handle the resurgence and have not lost your market share.
The time to consider re-branding is when the market has corrected and you see an upswing. Still, caution should be exercised with a totally new strategy that is untested—especially as you are rebounding as this is a crucial time. But please note—qualitative and quantitative research is not testing. Running the creative and having the consumer vote with his inbound call–or logging onto your site– is the only valid test that you can run.
It’s all about balance – a company’s brand is very important, but not at the expense of the direct response elements that contribute immediate ROI. Never sacrifice your core values, especially when money is scarce and the pressure is on. As we always say at Inter/media, every dollar spent on DRTV is a brand dollar.
–Robert B. Yallen is the CEO of the Inter/Media Group of Companies™. He can be reached at (818) 995-1455 or email him at [email protected]
