The Concept of the Differences between Marketing in Good or Bad Times is Flawed

Written By Ted Grigg

After a quick Google search this morning looking for writings related to "marketing in bad times," the topic went on for pages with dozens if not hundreds of recent articles.

I skimmed a few and the same themes came up.

  • Get to know your customers and take care of them.

  • Target your best customers and best prospects.

  • Now is the time get into online marketing in a big way.

  • Eliminate your weak programs and expand the successful ones.

  • Work on breaking down the silos for more seamless communications and offerings to your customers.

  • Work on better tracking systems to identify your winning and losing marketing efforts.

DMCG Results

Cannibalization of marketing budgetsThe lists go on endlessly. 

But here is the most striking thing about almost all of them. The title for almost all of these articles could easily switch to "What to do in a great economy."

I've always wondered why effective and appropriate marketing practices in good times should change when times are down? 

In other words, target marketing, offer testing, database segmentation, multichannel marketing and the budgets assigned to them because they were profitable in good times does that necessarily make them unprofitable in bad times. So I would continue to do what I know works while keeping a close eye, as always, on the effectiveness of all efforts.

In bad times, my circulation may decrease because what was marginally profitable in good times becomes unprofitable in bad times. But the core strategies and close analysis remain constant in bad as well as good times.

In my opinion, most companies overreact and cannibalize their best marketing efforts out of fear rather than rational thought.

Your thoughts?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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