I had an interesting chat with an Estate Agent at the weekend and he was telling me how bad business is for him at the moment. It seems that the downturn has really hit hard over the past few weeks, although it shouldn’t really be a surprise. I am not an economist but marketing during a recession was worth talking about in January.

Then, a few bad things happen at the same time - banks, oil and food - the newspapers do their usually hysteria messaging, telling us not to PANIC and suddenly we seem to be in a full blown recession.

Interestingly the Estate Agent was saying he would rather cut back on advertising than staff and I am sure they will not be alone, reducing marketing spend to save costs. But, is it the advertising that should be cut off or simply a different message for different times?

The papers are great for whipping up fear in people and the Oscar winning documentary - Bowling For Columbine - had a key message that fear is the very premise for continued economic stability in the US.

Do you scare people? Can you scare people?

It’s a genuine marketing tactic, scaring people. Perhaps if you don’t do it, you will go out of business! (see what I did there?)

Think about it. Insurance companies, family issues, or anything to do with getting old; they all market using messages that insist that you NEED the product, rather than it being a ‘nice to have’. The focus often moves into the worst case scenario of you not parting with your money.

Perhaps this model fits your business? Perhaps you need to look at genuine motivational factors of why someone may need your product or service.

Marketing in a recession

There is no doubt that although a recession is never a great thing to deal with, there will be opportunities for reaching new, or different, markets and that simply requires appropriate messaging rather than hiding and hoping the storm will pass.