A disastrous start to 2020 will be the death knell for some.
There’s no way to sugar-coat it.
But successful businesses will be those who recognise potential problems and do something about it.
The New Year Bushfires proved a big blow for domestic business and the negative global publicity, fueled and exaggerated for political effect by the climate lobby, will be a massive blow for tourism and anyone who relies on it. But the human coronavirus, originating in China and spreading around the world, is the double-whammy the tourism industry, indeed Australia, could have done without. Shutting down global travel and global trade will have far-reaching consequences that will domino through the whole economy,
The great Aussie singer/songwriter, John Williamson, understood the knock-on effect when he wrote about the drought in Galleries of Pink Galahs:
“Winter’s come, the hills are brown
Shops are closed, the blinds are down
Everybody’s leavin’ town
They can’t go on”
That all sounds pretty bleak and it is a tough song to listen to for anyone who lived through a drought in the bush, like the one in the early 80s just before that song was released.
For the advertising industry, the outlook is particularly bleak. Tough economic times traditionally mean even tougher times for advertising because when businesses feel the pinch, the easiest place to save money is on marketing. Normally, smart business managers see the opportunity here to increase their market share – if they have the cash flow ability to invest. They are the ones who become the stronger trees.
When you consider the economy was already flagging last year, the disastrous start to 2020 will mean businesses, more than ever, will have to do more with less across the board, including the marketing department. Especially the marketing department. It is their job to get dollars in the door.
So 2020 is a great opportunity to challenge traditional thinking, apply some creativity and maintain income streams while cutting the spend. Marketing strategy is about more than advertising. In fact, advertising is mostly the art of throwing money into the top of a big funnel, hoping something comes out the bottom. Marketing is about strategy and building the right funnel. Strategy is unavoidable. Even having no strategy is a strategy – just not a good one.
Investment in marketing, real marketing, can stop or at least limit the amount of wasted money poured into advertising funnels. There’s certainly more than one way to skin a cat (there’s hundreds). But there’s even more ways to increase or maintain income streams. Some include no advertising at all and in most of those scenarios the cat gets to keep his skin.
Business owners and managers need to ask themselves a few important questions before 2020 goes too far:
- Is my marketing spend producing results?
- How can I get the same outcomes (or better) with less?
- Are we being creative or just “doing what we’ve always done”?
- Does our marketing strategy give us a competitive advantage?
If you want an “out of the ashes” story, consider the preceding verse in Galleries of Pink Galahs:
“It takes a harsh and cruel drought
To sort the weaker saplings out
It makes room for stronger trees
Maybe that’s what life’s about”
2020 will be an opportunity for stronger trees to prove themselves.