Recession Proof Your Marketing with Smarter Promotional Product Buying

With news of continuing or worsening recessionary times, the knee-jerk reaction for many businesses is to cut advertising. Nothing could be worse for a business. And according to a report from ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute), studies show that companies who maintain or increase their ad spending during recessions come out of it stronger than those who don’t. In fact, some of the evidence FOR advertising during recessions is quite dramatic.

View/Download the ASI Report on Advertising During Recessions (.PDF)

“I’ve seen this scenario play itself out in the markets I serve,” says promotional products expert Heidi Thorne of Thorne Communications. “With many of our clients in the construction and building trades, industries which have been some of the hardest hit in recent years, I understand the natural tendency to pull back. But the reality is that this is the time to stay the course, make positive course corrections or become more aggressive to come out of the downturn on top. We’ve been encouraged by some of our clients who are pursuing growth strategies during this time. And we’ve even made some investments that we believe will position our own company for the future, regardless of how long any recessionary times last.”

Further, Heidi makes several suggestions for marketers who want to maintain their market presence with promotional products, but also may want to conserve financial resources:

Select One-Color Imprints. If your logo contains multiple colors, it incurs additional expense for run and set-up charges which could add hundreds of dollars to an item’s cost. Convert your logo to a one-color, solid black and white, version for imprint purposes. Then imprint in just one of your logo colors, or black or white ink.

Get Back to Basics. Ditch unusual or highly customized promotions which can be very costly and may have limited use. Stick with basic, high utility, promotional items such as pens, adhesive and standard notepads, drinkware, etc. for more consistent presence.

Buy Just What You Need for Now. While buying in smaller quantities can often be more expensive on a per item basis, it does avoid tying up funds in promotional product inventories.

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Be a Resource. When times get challenging, people are clamoring for ways to survive the downturn. Do you have a product or service that helps people save money or maintain their lifestyles? Consider creating a laminated card filled with ideas for saving money. You’ll be seen as a helpful resource they can rely on now and later. For example, one of Thorne Communications’ accounting clients used this strategy to show clients how to save money by going paperless.

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Stick With Your Promo With Purpose Buying Strategy. As fully detailed in Heidi’s book, SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business, the Promo With Purpose analysis process helps hone in on what promotions and distribution strategies would be most effective for a particular customer base. “In good times, marketing budgets can allow for additional discretionary promotion buys that may or may not have long term effectiveness. But when resources shrink, it is critical to select only items that will have the greatest impact over time.”