I heard recently that we’re in a recession.

No kidding. And while at first I was in denial, as our firm was as busy as we could stand, things have indeed started to slow down a tad for us. As marketing director, I’m probably just as sensitive as anyone to this because it’s my job to maintain a steady stream of business. As a result, I often find myself caught up in the so called experts’ assessment of the situation, and tend to start to think with a glass half empty mentality (i.e. with fear).

Aaron sent me an article last night that gave me a little bit of perspective on the whole situation. It got me thinking that while it’s a difficult time for everyone right now, there ARE in fact some good opportunities out there, provided you don’t find yourself crippled with fear. Instead it’s key to take a step back and move forward with strategic clarity.

For us, this means understanding that while marketing spending is down, it’s still there. We need to focus on making ourselves as visible as possible to our prospects, while all the while making sure our value proposition is crystal clear. I’m excited about doing just that in 2009.

For our clients and prospective clients, moving forward with clarity and without fear means resisting the temptation to cut bait by freezing their marketing programs. The companies that make this mistake are acknowledging that they believe marketing is an expense rather than an investment and putting themselves in peril by lengthening the gap between their product/service and their customer. The companies that are going to be successful in 2009 are going to continue marketing just as hard as they always have, and they will be rewarded for it.

You can read the TechCrunch article Aaron passed along HERE. And try to remember to operate without fear in 2009.

Happy Holidays,

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 10:28 am and is filed under Blog Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.