How your company can survive the crisis of ‘09

(SANEPR.com) June 8, 2009 -- Dubai, UAE-(SANEPR) June 10, 2009-As the world is facing it’s least certain financial and economic moment in all of our lives, we are being forced to either adapt or get out of the way. No matter what professional industry you are in, you are either being affected by this economic downturn already, or bracing yourself for imminent impact one way or another. Many companies, multinational to local, small to conglomerate are scrambling to downsize spending to a minimal level as they should be. Times like this call for swift changes and a lack of reluctance to getting with the times in order to survive. We have already seen many previously thought of as invincible companies fall due to the effects of this ever increasingly depressing situation and so we all know certain measures are necessary in order to maintain operation.
However, some companies are quick to cut their marketing budgets in an effort to cut costs in the wake of an unforeseeable future. I for one (and most marketing experts will agree with me) think the exact opposite is necessary. “Most of the companies in the world commit the common error of reducing their marketing budgets in times of crisis, despite innovative marketing being the most efficient solution to weather through a slowdown”, reported the Consumer 360 conference held by Neilsen in Egypt last month. The conference concluded that the majority of the scientific research conducted over the last 50 years proved that companies which implemented efficient marketing strategies during crises, tend to grow in times of economic recovery by as far s 250 per cent. Also, on the contrary, companies which reduce their marketing budgets during such periods do our company can surv not exceed a growth rate of 19 per cent. Adapting does in no way mean cutting your main avenues for lead generation. How does anyone expect sales numbers to stay constant, let alone increase, if they tear apart their advertising campaigns? According to a late 2008 McKinsey survey of 340 senior marketing executives worldwide, despite the decline in economic activity 91% said they plan to maintain or exceed current levels of online advertising, and 55% were cutting traditional media, in order to increase funding for online efforts."

Now many of you will read this and have excuses, and to that I say shhh! Read on. In this time of uncertainty, you must market more aggressively, whilst also marketing more cost effectively as well in order to minimize the damage done to the capital reserves of your business. Because of this I agree with the hundreds of other Advertising Experts blogging up a storm when I say that Online Advertising is the way to go right now for the following 4 reasons.
• People are still going to buy what the need and want badly enough, they just need to
• find your product/service and company before they find your competitor’s. The need for your company to be “omnipresent” is greater than it has ever been before and
• because of this Online Marketing is the clear alternative to the, traditional methods of advertising as one can be several places at the same time thanks to insanely expansive advertising networks like that of Google, and Yahoo.

• Internet marketing has the highest Return on Investment of any form of marketing out there. The 2 major ROI’s for Online Marketing are sales and post campaign reporting. The first is obvious, sales, meaning a higher number of sales per/ amount spent than any other form of advertising available to companies today. The second form of ROI of Online Marketing takes some explaining to understand as it is a new term to many. The information and data you can gather from an Internet Marketing campaign on your target demographic is the #1 ROI you can take from your online efforts. There is no better way to peer into the minds of your consumers than to discover where and what they search to find your business. This reporting enables your business to become extremely powerful in the long run as you are able to tweak and change campaigns to maximize efficiency and effectiveness daily.

• Internet marketing reaches more people for less money than any other form of marketing available. Because there is no minimum budgets with Online Marketing and some Online Marketing Agencies can start campaigns for the same price as one day’s newspaper advertisement, it makes it very easy for even the smallest of companies to begin. Online Marketing is also completely quantifiable, so companies are able to see exactly where every dirham, pound, dollar, real, shilling or peso was spent making for excellent returns.

• The Internet poses the best chance of any marketing media to grow during the economic crisis. As people are becoming more frugal and each purchase becomes more important, they are tending to spend absorbent amounts of time researching each of their purchases online. This is giving companies access to larger numbers of people by the minute, and because this database of people can be segmented based on preferences the ROI again is higher than anything else available.
These are facts, and not my personal opinions. Everything I have mentioned in this article can be researched and backed up by even more credible sources than myself. The bottom line is this: Stay focused on your customer first, and not on the market as your customers are the ones who will help see your business through this economic downturn. Stop complaining about the current situation and do something immediately to save your business by searching online yourself for the most competitive and professional Online Marketing Agency to see what kind of offers they can make you. They may just save your business.

About the Author:

Andrew Lee Miller holds a BS in International Business from Bowling Green State University in the U.S and is one of the Middle East’s leading New Media Experts. Andrew is also head of New Business Development for Cosmos Creatives, a new media advertising and web services firm based in Dubai that is pioneering Low Cost Online Advertising and Promotions practices in the Middle East.

For more details visit us at http://www.cosmoscreatives.com or contact them their office in Dubai at Tel.: + 04 351 5450