Interesting times …. open the morning papers, get depressed, carry on as normal – think that’s what most of us are doing. Are we right? Should we act? The possibilities seem limited - manage costs, innovate faster, pull communications spends?
There is another option however!
What happens in a recession … consumer confidence falls. Consumers become even more cynical of paid for marketing messages. Simply, they absolutely want to make sure they are making the right choice, so they turn to their most trusted advisors – their friends, family, journalists, experts or other advocates who they trust to give them unbiased advice.
So here is the opportunity. Our Advocacy research across Europe showed last year that across the 60 or so brands measured, over a third of all purchase decisions were primarily influenced by personal recommendation (word of mouth). Yet most of these brands only spent a fraction of their marketing budgets on WOM generating activities …. what a waste.
Advocacy is clearly going to grow rapidly in influence in the coming months and years, so get ahead of the recession, review where you are spending your budgets, test new approaches ……but most of all get going!
