Over 48% of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling according to research from Ad-ology.
That's not a good sign for those businesses who have opted to reduce their advertising budgets as a means to save money. The study finds advertising appears to play a key role in consumers’ view of how a business is doing, and by not advertising, businesses may be sending a warning signal to current and potential customers.
"It is critical to advertise in the current economic climate, to maintain long-term positive consumer perception of your brand," said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research.
"Advertising not only assures consumers of a business’ reliability in a soft economy, but it can influence where and what they buy, especially when the ads address concerns about value," Smith said.
Other interesting facts from the study include:
- 40% of consumers use coupons more now than a year ago
- Most consumers are as willing or more willing to pay more for ‘healthy’ or ‘organic’ products than they were a year ago
- A ‘deeply discounted price’ was the number-one factor that would make consumers more likely to purchase a big-ticket item (+$1,000)
- TV, newspaper, direct mail, and Internet top local media from which consumers saw/heard an ad within the last 30 days that led them to take action
- Store Web sites ranked second only to search engines as the way consumers research products and shop online
Have you reduced the amount of money you are spending on advertising? If so, have you noticed a dramatic effect on your business? Tell us about it.
Local Online Advertising Woes Should Lead to InnovationWhat Consumers Think About Recession-Related MarketingCourse for Guerrilla Marketing During RecessionTake Advantage of Advertising Right Now!Many Small business Owners Think Worst of Recession Yet To ComeRecession Creating Business Growth for Online RetailersKeep on Advertising! Are You Still Advertising In This Economy?Online Advertising Will Thrive in Weak Economic TimesMarketing Budgets And The Economy
 | |||
| Do you have a business site? Submit your business related site FREE! | |||
| |||
Submit Your Article
Advertise
Newsletter
Comments
I do agree 100%
I totally agree with you, adversting both offline and online shows a strong position in the market amongst your competitors. Especially this period when people(consumers) are looking for cheap deals and offers to save cost. I agree that advertising can influence a consumer on what and where to buy a product.
E.g the London Flora marathon only sent 100 of thousands of consumers to our site.
Advertising counts
I agree about the advertising that you need to get the word out especially about the product on the internet. All aspects of advertisng are important if you have a site.
Norma
www.heavenpeturns.com for quality pet cremation urns.
Advertising
And if thety advertise on Concrete Buzz they'll do even better.
I plan to include this info on my next newsletter. 100% right on. The challenge is to convince them they should be on my site vs. the millions of others who are spinning the same story.
This is one of those things
This is one of those things that is easy to say and a little obvious, too. What would be interesting is if you dug a little deeper and discussed what advertisers with no budgets can do on the cheap to stay in the public eye. Having little or no ad budget is much more of a reality for marketers today than just simply making a decision not to advertise.
Reflecting On Lack of Ads
This reminds me of the times I've been one of a trade show booth team showing one of our ventures. In a conversation with a "neighbour" at the show, his comment stuck with me. He said his sales generally did not increase after or as a result of the trade show. The reason he was there was to show his competition that he could still afford to be there. In other words, if his product was abscent and the news spread, his target market might assume that he had gone belly-up.
Reduced Ads Spending Impact
The use of targetted ads - whether you do or not has a direct correlation to having more business, in direct relationship to how you are viewed by the public - especially your very own or potential customers.
I can offer you 2 examples:
1) In the 1990s I had an international trading company. After the first year, income was insignificant so we cut our ads. Customers started calling concerned we had gone belly up. In fact, the already small income got cut in half within 3 months! Resuming our ads campaign with a different slant and doing outright promotions saw a truly meteoric rise in our business worldwide within a year!
2) Starting up a business often burns the owner out - energy and very often, cash. Ads often suffer as it's the first thing not to get attention. Big mistake. Use mass media online if you can't afford the paper ads (very costly) if you have a business that can be delivered online, or one you can take orders online. And use any other manner of promotion. In fact, the best form of advertising is through promotions that will benefit another more established company. e.g. Send out coupons for a supermarket chain through your media and available from your website. It's always a favourable impression that gets you sales.
Cost Effective Advertising
I couldn't agree more with the other commentors, advertising is such an important part of any business's expenditure, that it is foolish to cut back on advertising when the economy slows down, but sadly it is something that is the first thing to get the axe.
A new site called Popwebplanet has come up with an innovative way for you to advertise at an affordable price. The site owner explains here: Level The Playing Field how difficult she found it to launch a new business to find affordable advertising and so she created Popwebplanet.com for both online and offline business's to have a presence on the web at an affordable price.
It's well worth a visit . PopwebPlanet.
On line advertising
I could not agree more. And that is exactly what Jjanusz Custom Jewelry Design does. We have increased our online exposure by more than 50%. We are reaching out across local and state lines. We are located in the greater Chicago land area and now have customers in California, Louisianna and Pennsylvannia! Not bad for a small custom jewelry design studio that specializes in one custom piece of jewelry at one time just for that one particular customer! It also does not hurt that we charge our customers the same price that we charge our high end retail customers- so if you have been in sticker shock over the price of engagement rings- look us up!
Local Adverising
Talk about a specious conclusion!
How can the lack advertising be measured? Of course respondents will reply they think lack of advertising is a bad indication for a business but this is becasue they are being polled and of course they feel they have to say something. What else would you expect them to say?
In reality how often do you walk around wondering how how many billboards you haven't seen today. What a load of malarkey. Using this logic I'm guessing Starbucks must be out of business by now because I've never seen an ad for their business.
Post new comment