Anti-Recession Tactics
November 18th, 2009
“This is one of the most challenging economic environments we’ve seen in many decades,” says American Express CEO Ken Chenault. When you add up all the components of the current economy — joblessness, foreclosures, consumer debt, dried up credit — you’ve got one heck of a mess. Digging out is likely to take years, expert analysts believe. So how does one adjust their online and offline marketing campaigns to speak to this new audience of broke and unhappy consumers? How should management teams lead their companies out of this downturn? According to top performing businesses, many of the anti-recession tactics are really quite simple.
The most important of all anti-recession tactics is to understand the new problems your customers face and offer them innovative solutions. The most successful businesses are ones that can save customers money, make their lives less stressful and offer more value. For instance, one company developed a fast-curing resin to maximize productivity for injection-molding machines; yet, when the recession happened and greater output was no longer needed, the company switched gears and developed a less expensive, slower-curing resin, which was ultimately profitable. “We can’t add meat to a burger anymore,” admits CKE marketing chief Brad Haley, who oversees the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr franchises. When times are tough, executives need to be more creative. He adds, “Carl’s Jr. is promoting a guacamole bacon cheeseburger. Avocados are a less expensive topping.”
One of the anti-recession tactics that many businesses fail to do is to keep investing in the core. One thing you cannot afford to do is let critical components of your business — like product innovation and customer service — fall by the wayside. When these dark days are over, you want your company to emerge like a butterfly out of its cocoon; you want people to say, “Even though the economy’s doing bad, this company seems to be faring well… look at all they’re doing!” Companies that stagnate now can never compete later. “We’re not going to cut innovation,” Intuit’s Brad Smith tells CNN Money Magazine. “This company, for 25 years, has been fueled by new-product innovation. We’re protecting the innovation pipeline so we come out of this strong.”
Anti-recession tactics require you to resist temptation, which could be especially hard if you’re a fast-moving, impulsive, risk-taking sort of person. On a good day, you may have no qualms about acquiring some of your smaller competition that’s up for grabs, especially if the price is right. Yet, a recession may not be the best time to branch out and acquire new money-sucking extensions. Generally, companies are twice as likely to acquire businesses and merge when the economy is doing well, statistics show. However, there are business moguls like Warren Buffet who believe in being greedy when others are fearful. This could be a great time to absorb smaller companies that are full of fresh talent and skills, but be smart about all the calculated moves you make during an economic downturn.
Posted in Tips on Surviving-a-recession | 
Tags: Anti-Recession Tactics, Tips on Surviving-a-recession
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