The two largest learning’s from watching hundreds of programs and campaigns work, fail or just exist is that we, as a technology BtB marketing industry, do not pay adequate attention to what matters to customers outside our immediate areas of expertise. We hope that as 2010 planning and execution looms we can garner some insights from the list of assessments below. Some are as small as a tweet, others maybe fall into the IM category and still others are more questions than answers.
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In Part Two of this blog we continue with the remaining 4 observations from Tuesday, January 27, 2009.
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Even my sister’s children in the UK say "we are now in a recession." That may not be a surprise if they were adolescents but they are both less than ten years old. To some that argues that adults have been in denial for a long time and children are very open to tell the truth when they see it happen. It certainly took the US government over a year to acknowledge that we were in a recession. The essence here is that if it takes a year or so to flag an economic downturn and a quarter or two for our marketing to react, then we need to think now about the upturn. To build for that and take advantage of riding that wave might take as long, so we cannot afford for our marketing to be that slow to react to the upside as for many of us it is in the downturn.
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The big question is, are you a "recessionista?" It is there in the pages of US Weekly a comment about a pair or $248 torn designer jeans worn by Mandy Moore, not exactly being a recessionista’s view of fashion in a recession. Well, you might want to ask yourself if your reaction to the big “R” word has been more like a recessionista - a fashion statement - or more like a genuine reaction to bigger changes and the need to use the shock opportunity to sort your house out. If growth is a panacea for all evils, then recessions are the moments of shock that allow you handle the aspects of your marketing that may have been nagging at you for a while.
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There is an old comment that if all around are losing their heads and you are staying calm then you must not be reading the situation properly. Many brand’s reaction to the current economic climate is an anxious closure of any new ideas or needs. Lock down the windows and huddle up to the one center of warmth in the room. In this situation the warmth might be the one or two sets of activities that have historically worked. Well, that is not an illogical model. It is however a dangerous place to be when it comes to thinking about doing things differently.
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Please check out this recent podcast on NetworkWorld.com with Beth Schultz where I am asked about the top five spending priorities for 2009.
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The film The Year of Living Dangerously was the only film I ever walked out of and within ten minutes realized what a terrible error that was. You just can’t get back into a film in the UK if you leave the theater. I would dread that we look at the end of 2009 and feel the same. We are about to enter a very chaotic year, a year of living dangerously.
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This might be a really mixed set of variables to talk about but they actually form part of the same debate. When times are tough branding takes a back seat and demand wins over. Part One of this blog pair (Wed Sep 3) talked about the need to ask more questions about what we want to do online as new calendar planning occurs. Part Two also involves asking some hard questions about how you plan and re-align on these two areas for next year.
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In the US the return from Labor Day marks the end of the summer period. One very short burst of time before we head into the process for fourth calendar quarter executions and planning for the next calendar year.
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As we have just gone past the longest day in the northern hemisphere summer it might seem odd to talk about next year (planning for January 2009). Most of us are still handling the current programs in Q3 and preparing for calendar Q4 rush for the end-of-year targets. The challenge is that real changes next year are going to involve acting on five critical trends. We have seen many brands handle one or two of these okay, but rarely, if ever have we seen a brand handle all five in a dexterous and competent manner. So maybe at the end of the day we just need to be better focused on the core areas for investment focus.
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