More than 60 percent of the delegates at the recent Association of National Advertisers conference in Florida last week reported that they would maintain or increase their marketing budgets in the near term, as reported in the New York Times. Respondents included senior marketing executives that make multi-million dollar marketing investment decisions on behalf of some of the country's biggest corporations.
This is encouraging, given that the usual reaction by corporations in challenging economic times is to reduce their marketing budgets. And this usually results in steeper declines in product sales. It is true that the consumer is in retrench mode, spending only on basic items. However, it's during difficult times that companies who have invested in their brands, fare much better than those who don't have as much equity with consumers.
Now more than ever, it's incumbent for us as consultants to demonstrate that the decision to continue investing in the brand is correct and will generate great returns.