Marketing in a Brave New World
Courage. That’s what it’s going to take. Courage to invest precious, dwindling dollars into business marketing to keep the boat afloat. Courage to reach out to markets with dwindling resources and fear of the unknown.
Back in the sixties, Crosby Stills and Nash sang, “We have all been here before…” on their album Deja Vu… but this time, this is new to all of us. We’ve never been here before. How can we plan for return on investment when no one has any money left? Rich, poor, middle class…we’ve all been hit, hard.
» With the luxury of having a diversified perspective from the standpoint of many different industries, it is interesting to see how this economy is affecting various segments of the market. Real estate clients were the first to experience major trauma in their business back in 2005, with activity declining dramatically through the next two years. More recently regional automotive clients have begun to feel the repercussions of the problems on the national front. International service companies based here also began feeling the squeeze back in October when the stock market crashed because of the inability of their worldwide clients to continue to afford their services, as well as pay what they already owed. A vicious cycle, to say the least.
Perhaps a source of envy for many businesses, the legal sector has not shown signs of slowing. In fact, one accident injury client is signing cases at an unprecedented rate. And, after 25 years, he only signs cases that are a sure thing. Is this a coincidence, or is the public getting more litigious in its present state of economic shock?
Certainly, products and services are still needed but the marketing environment will be highly competitive to gain a worthwhile market share. How fortunate that in today’s world, most businesses have websites to serve as a portal for communication with customers and clients. Can we predict what industries will fall to the wayside as a result?
Tags: courage in business marketing, Marketing in a Brave New World