Make Smarter Marketing Bets in 2010

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Key marketing strategy: Cut back, don't cut out. Recognize that the vehicles through which you promote your company will also be suffering and will be highly receptive to making deals for their continually expiring inventory. Recently I overheard a financial planner discussing portfolio management tell a colleague, "You make the most during a recession. You just don't know it." That goes for investing in your own company as well as in others. This scenario will present more of a buyer's market than ever, and those who can continue to buy will buy cheap. As remote as an economic resurgence may seem at this point, you need to discipline yourself to prepare for it. You'll look back on resources you invest in marketing today as time and money well spent.

Scenario 3: Rapid Recovery

While we all hope for healthy growth to return, this scenario is in some ways the most dangerous as companies stock up, staff up, and ramp up their growth engines. The faster the economy recovers, the more we could be in for hyperinflation. You'll once again be hiring, but the best talent will quickly get snatched up (and their compensation bid up). You'll want to expand your inventory to meet rising demand, but inflation and materials shortages may threaten your ability to do so. You'll be ready to market more, but the cost of media will rise as your competitors try to seize the day as well. It will be easy to become undisciplined in a free-for-all chase for growth.

Key marketing strategy: Moderate demand through pricing and payment terms. The greatest danger will be in growing too fast and running out of cash as your receivables grow (collecting money from customers facing the same challenges won't be easy). Quality control may also become an issue as you rush to meet demand. While the temptation after two lean years will be to grow the top line as quickly as possible, focus on quality growth and protecting your margins. You'll likely need the money.

It's no fun to think about continued economic stagnation (or worse), and it may seem unrealistic to prepare for a rapid recovery. But that's where the discipline of running a good business comes in. Take some time now to imagine yourself facing the three scenarios above and consider what kind of decisions you'll need to make under each. Think about how the key marketing strategies apply to your company, or whether your unique circumstances call for a different approach altogether. The bigger a head start you can get on each of these scenarios, the better off you'll be once one of them comes to pass.

Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, a firm that specializes in helping stalled companies rekindle growth. He is the author of the new book, When Growth Stalls.

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