I’m a commuter so I have a couple of hours a day essentially by myself. I have become a big fan of satellite radio – lots of news shows and NPR. Lately the word count on recovery is up. Funny how reluctantly the word recession was muttered but saying recovery comes easily.

Yes, a recovery will eventually come. Sooner for some, later for others. If you are a B2B marketer you need to be thinking about when your markets are going to recover. Economic downturn/recovery history tells us that marketers that survived previous recessions generally had a recession marketing plan. I don’t know this for a fact but I can only imagine that they also had a recovery marketing plan. Have you drafted one yet?

Today might be a good time to start. But take heed, you can’t simply do a find and replace for dates in your pre-recession marcom plan. If you went quiet during this recession you will be surprised how much the B2B marketing landscape has shifted.
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Are you tired of all the gloom and doom news regarding the economy? I am. I watch the news constantly looking for any positive signs. I’m still watching and waiting. But I’m an optimist. I can’t single-handily fix the economy but I wonder what I can do, what I might recommend to B-to-B marketers that will help them get through this tough time and prepare for that eventual turnaround.

Last week I attended the monthly, early-morning coffee chat with members of our local chapter of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). The predetermined topic was, “What challenges are we facing in our business and what are we doing to cope?” Not surprisingly, many are experiencing similar issues: reduced staff, unpredictable workloads and just the uncertainty of what is to come.

There were a few positive indicators. Two firms noted that a few of their clients were taking the opportunity during the slow time to fine-tune their branding and these
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You can’t go anywhere or strike up a conversation with anyone without the topic turning to the economy. Invariably the question I ask or is asked of me is, “How’s business?”

We’ve been through this before and weathered the storm. So have our clients. Typically, the knee-jerk reaction is to cut budgets, reallocate funds and tighten the marketing and advertising belt. We have a white paper titled, “Why Branding Becomes More Important In Uncertain Times” written by Ken Jones. You can download this white paper here.

Marketers who decide to continue to invest in their marketing programs during tough economic times, albeit possibly at a smaller allocation, need to be more prudent how and where they spend their money. That’s obvious.

So how is business? You’ve still got a communications budget, probably smaller than originally planned.
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