Become a marketer instead

January 14th, 2009 in Marketing by Nigel Hicks

Not every business owner can call themselves a professional photographer. But every business owner needs to be a marketer. Creativity lends itself quite nicely to marketing so the chances are, if you’re reading this blog but don’t claim to be a marketer already, you’ll be quite good at it.

I was reading an article by Paul Williams yesterday that made me realise this: The current economic climate is forcing every business owner (that’s you) to become a marketer. The recession is a “training ground for us to hone our businesses. The difference (or benefit?) with the recession is that EVERYBODY is in rough waters, not just you.”

We have the opportunity to (or as a matter of survival need too) find new ways to:

Become more relevant to customers

Attract more attention in meaningful ways

Differentiate from our competitors

Marketing’s not a skill confined to professionals. It’s about developing strategies, ideas and content to connect with and persuade potential and current clients. You know your business and clients better than anyone, so you’re in a great position to start. If business is quiet, you’ve got a great opportunity to spend time working on your business.

Ian’s posts about strategies to survive and thrive in the recession are well worth a read. He talks about the importance of staying true to your dream. Don’t undermine the hard work you’ve done building your business for short term gain. Work on marketing instead.

Cheers, Nigel

PS Ian will be back here soon. He lost his laptop and the work he did over the holiday season in a burglary.

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Is the sky falling?

December 17th, 2008 in Marketing by Ian Baugh

1 Comment »

Tags: Economy, Recession, Sales, Surviving

chickenlittle Doing their Chicken Little impression, the media say the sky is falling. Some of our clients are worried, but personally I wonder. Here’s why.

First, Heather and I have been through it before (no, not the great depression! that was our parents and grandparents)…

1. The 1984 New Zealand currency crisis (that might mean nothing to you, but our country almost went broke).

2. The 1987 share market crash.

3. The 1997 Asian financial crisis.

4. The 2001 Tech meltdown.

Sure, they probably weren’t as bad, but we survived them all. In fact in each of those years except 1984 our sales increased. And we all survived SARS and Y2K too, remember? Plus the odd political tragedy…

Second, things may not be as bad as you might think. We know that some people are finding it tough, and we feel their pain, but our clients generally seem to be doing very well and our sales are strong. We still see the same gorgeous albums flowing through.

Third, it pays to look at how bad it really is. I just read the IMF’s November World Economic Outlook update (I also checked out the OECD’s stats).

The IMF expects a 0.7% decline in the US economy in 2009 and a 1.3% decline in the UK. They’re more pessimistic than they were in October, and it could get worse, but how bad would even a 3% decline be? Serious, absolutely – there will be plenty of personal tragedies – but not the end of the world.

In Canada the IMF expects slight growth. Our own Reserve Bank expects the same, and so do the Aussies. The emerging and developing countries will have to make do with 5% growth.

The statistics that look the gloomiest are the confidence statistics. I believe how we respond determines what happens to us. And look on the bright side. We’re not in the construction industry, or real estate, or the financial sector.

Two more things to take heart from:

1. The real economy isn’t collapsing so much as the financial markets. The Apple share price may be 50% off its twelve month high, but that doesn’t mean people don’t like iPods any more.

2. In the real economy, money hasn’t disappeared, it’s just got cautious. It’s going to be harder to charm out of people’s pockets. As it happens I’ve just read a speech in which a Kiwi politician talks about the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment was over 20 percent, we had minimal welfare in New Zealand and there were food riots in our streets. (Do we think it’s going to get that bad?) He said, “I’ve seen photographs of the members’ stand at the [race track] in 1932 – the same year as the riots. It’s full of well-dressed people, and the car park is filled with large American cars and uniformed chauffeurs standing beside them.”

I am not being flippant about a serious situation. Over the next few days we’ll be posting more about strategies to survive and thrive in the recession.

Cheers, Ian

PS Think of this as a time of opportunity. That shy money will find it’s way into new wallets. Some of your competitors will go to the wall. If you keep your nerve and respond constructively, it could be lonelier at the top in a year or two.