Society Sobriety (pt5) Econopocalypse Survivors

Any business provider of goods and services can see first hand how rapidly purchasing confidence has dwindled with the GFC. Even businesses on higher ground that stayed relatively dry during the GFC floods are shoring up their finances with sand bags full of “thanks, but no thanks”.

Irrespective of liquidity, business spending is generally paralyzed by a frugal mentality that could be harmful in the long run. A major corporate client of ours has slashed its formidable marketing budget to less than half across all subsidiaries. A few of those subsidiaries’ marketing budgets have been stripped to essentials like product packaging and staffed by a skeleton crew whittled down by redundancies. I’m sure most of those measures are prudent, but if the cuts persist over time their brand identity will be compromised when consumers notice the waning potency of their once favorite brand, particularly when its on a shelf or rack beneath another brand that demands more attention.
Despite this client’s reduction in production with us, we’ve had significant growth over the last year. With the economic turmoil, companies are now more inclined to try new suppliers rather than comfortably plodding along with the familiar. The good folks of Leo Burnett developed a Firefox plugin that replaces the word “crisis” with “opportunity”, which is the browser analogue to our present business views. Chinese philosophy aside, many companies are taking advantages of more competitive supplier offerings and their competitor’s duress. Its like Mad Max, the cities fall to pieces while those willing to get down and dirty thrive.

Any Road Warriors out there experiencing business growth despite the econopocalypse?