The Opportunity of Advertising

By Koroberi / Dec 18, 2008 / No Comments

I’ve been thinking about some of the downturns I’ve worked through in the ‘80s, ‘90s and earlier this decade. I’ve re-read articles published during those periods and found a common theme—this time of uncertainty is an Opportunity.

Advertising is an investment just like a machine that cuts production costs. Consider the lead time of sales in the B2B space. Few industrial products are purchased on impulse. Especially when every dollar spent is being scrutinized. Current advertising affects your future. At worst, advertising now facilitates a holding pattern. Advertising keeps your product in front of your customers; without advertising, a vacuum of information starts to develop.

Stopping your advertising has eroding effects. When advertising is cut out, the result is always diminished company and product awareness, fewer in-bound calls, fewer sales appointments for your reps to go to, fewer sales, decreasing share of market, less revenue, less profit and so on. Maintaining your share of sales and market now is much less costly than trying to rebuild them later. Once your momentum stops, you start over from scratch later.

Also remember, there’s always turnover at your customers and prospects. New specifiers might be starting today, next week or next month. Do they know anything about you yet? Advertising to these new influences is critical especially when they’re trying to maximize their impact and make their mark.

One of the most compelling considerations about advertising in a recession is the opportunity to steal sales and market share from a competitor who’s thrown the brakes on their own advertising. Think about the double whammy you can score: less competition in the marketplace of ideas from them means more impressions and more potential sales for you.

Jeff Asher is the Regional Sales Manager of New Equipment Digest, published by Penton Media, Inc.