They still need to buy things ... make sure they are your things

Over on Profy.com, back in 2008, Svetlana Gladkova wrote “Are We Sure About Pending Collapse of Ad-Supported Internet?” 

Svetlana wrote a great story about the impacts of the depression on companies and how they responded to it.  Svetlana found that advertising remained a relatively healthy industry through the depression.  Why?  Given the very bad economy, why would companies continue to advertise?

Simple answer really when you think about it.  People still need things.  Those things may be pretty basic.  Those things need to be really cheap.  Those things must be the things you are selling.

The first thing to keep in mind is that people will not stop buying products that are essential to them. True, people will hardly buy luxury products when they need to make decisions on what is really important and what they could live without given limited resources. But that does not mean people will not buy anything at all - it simply means the focus will change for them. So the first conclusion is that we will obviously see less luxury brands advertised. But it does not mean that manufacturers of those essential products will stop advertising as well. What’s more, they will have to compete with each other for those scarce money people will have in their disposal.

What’s more, in a bad environment consumers will be actively looking for better deals to spend those scarce money wisely. And if a company can offer a better deal to a consumer, it should advertise this opportunity because if no one knows you have something better to offer when compared to your competitor, how will you manage to make consumers make a choice in favor of your product.

So ... Lesson #3 from the Depression is ... be a value-product and make sure your target market knows about your value through clear and concise advertising.