The recession has attacked our budgets and resources, don’t let it take our creativity too!

Brand, reputation and profile – they all need to be managed but now on a much tighter budget. It’s a competitive and tough market out there. The recession encourages clients to question what they are spending their depleted funds on and forces them to consider alternatives. And in many markets the difference between the actual product or service on offer is negligibly small.

So, why should your clients stick with you? Why should new customers abandon their long-trusted supplier and take a chance on you?

This is where effective brand management – which encompasses your reputation, your values and the emotional appeal that leads people to buy – becomes crucial. Even more so in these current times of economic stress and strife than ever before. But to complicate the situation, falling profits mean marketing budgets have been brutally cut. Spending on flashy campaigns and impressive hospitality packages suddenly seems reckless. And maybe a bit insensitive to market pressures too. The result – marketing teams slip into being reactive fire fighters rather than go-getting entrepreneurial types.

Taking a back seat and removing your brand from the spotlight can be equally treacherous. It communicates a lack of confidence and acceptance of the situation. Whereas carefully targeted and imaginative plans can maintain profile, a self-assured approach and a determined defiance to conquer the economic gloom that adds endearing credibility to what you are offering.

The question is: Do slashed budgets really have to amount to a cull of our creativity? Maybe not. It’s all about injecting a bit of originality into our ideas and focusing as much on the message as the medium. It’s about being honest – did the expensive campaigns of the boom times deliver real return on investment or were they just a way to show off and indulge in an interesting project for the marketing team? By cutting back on the frivolities and ending the back-slapping bravado of recent years, is the recession an opportunity for marketing to being taken seriously?