The Global Financial Crisis has, understandably, been feared and loathed by leaders and citizens around the world. Concerns about the possible collapse of entire economies, mass unemployment, widespread personal and corporate financial losses, and families being plunged into relative poverty were justifiably held.
However, along with the detrimental ramifications, 2009 has brought to light a number of positive side-effects of the crisis.
When corporate and charitable organisations are faced with financial hardship, they inevitably are forced to review their expenditures and wield a magnifying glass to all their financial decisions. In so doing, a number of valuable lessons can frequently be learned. And the area which frequently comes under the most scrutiny is that of marketing. Although in principle most executive management will agree that marketing is an essential function, perhaps even more so during times of recession and shrinking economies, in practice they start to query far more extensively each individual marketing expenditure, and demand a ROI justification.
In fact, this is not a bad approach to take (as long as management are realistic and appropriate in assessing the value of intangible factors such as brand name recognition, goodwill, and so on). So, although the Global Financial Crisis has negatively impacted a number of businesses and in some cases resulted in downsizing and substantial retrenchments, the 2009 year has also seen a progressive shift from traditional media advertising whose performance is frequently difficult to quantify, towards a number of lower cost and more measureable digital alternatives.
This trend has been particularly pronounced in the not-for-profit sector who have always had limited financial resources anyway, and during the GFC experienced a greater degree of the same. Many organisations had already dabbled with varying degrees of success in online/digital marketing, starting to use more sophisticated web sites, and developing social networking strategies, email marketing programs, and so on — however, with the economic downturn triggering an instant reality check, many were galvanised into action and committed to making their digital marketing programs a major thrust of their overall strategy. The increased focus, and in some cases resourcing, enabled marketing personnel to develop, test, and finetune their digital marketing strategies with, in many cases, very exciting results.
If you’re a SME business or not-for-profit organisation who is looking to increase your marketing effectiveness on a limited budget, contact Aktiv Tactics to discuss our expert Digital Marketing services. We work to deliver innovative integrated marketing campaigns for mid-sized clients in Australia, Philippines, and other parts of Asia. If you’ve felt under financial pressure in the past twelve months, allow that situation to be the catalyst for improving the way in which you operate and enhancing your marketing operations.
