Marketing for winter in times of economic turmoil (serial one)

The wolf is really here.

The first thing a friend of the mall meets is often "how's business lately?" The answer is often "business is getting harder, money is getting harder", even in the best years of economic form. May contain the Chinese people's humble cost, but in many cases it is true. But the business here is hard because the market is becoming more and more competitive, the market is becoming more and more mature, and the market opportunities are less.

Since the US subprime crisis, after the US financial crisis, although economists cautioned that in a globally integrated economy, China is also very difficult to insulate itself, but also spread to the real economy. But this is theoretically, when the boss still has no immediate experience, but also in a step-by-step operation. In the last one months, companies in most industries have found that customers are visibly reduced, sales have dropped significantly and profits have fallen sharply, as bosses suddenly realise that wolves are really on their doorstep. It was a trivial thing to say that business was bad. Chinese businessmen feel overwhelmed by the feeling of a crisis.

Ma Yun of the internet has thrown out the "Winter theory", the real estate pan Shiyi began to ride the bicycle to work, Lang Salty flat suggested that the enterprise should not enlarge the production scale ... "increasing revenue and expenditure" became the most used word for the internal meeting of the enterprise during this period.

At the time of the crisis, the enterprise internal adjustment only a standard answer: Reduce costs, personnel freezes, reduce travel, improve efficiency, etc., but the enterprise marketing how to adjust is really a big problem.

Only throttling is not enough, but also open source. Enterprise internal resources adjustment, cannot guarantee the enterprise to spend the winter safely, the marketing countermeasure and the adjustment strategy not only directly relates the enterprise to be able to pass through this crisis safely, but also has one layer more important significance. Any economic crisis, or industry crisis (such as the recent milk powder time), is a process of restructuring the industry. The formulation and implementation of the most appropriate marketing strategy and system, will enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, expand market share, the competitors left far behind.

Simply cut advertising and sales costs, not the root causes

How do you sell your business in the economic downturn? What is the best way to sell in a depression? How to face and resolve the marketing dilemma faced by enterprises? Yes, it does, but the vast majority of Chinese companies do not understand that some of these methods have proved to be very feasible and effective in the past economic crisis in Europe and the US.

Let's take a look at the traditional marketing strategy of Chinese companies, or the instinctive response: reduce marketing budgets, cut down on planned marketing projects, such as

1, the most likely is to reduce advertising investment. In the first half, advertising spending for the top ten U.S. advertisers dropped 5.6% from a year earlier.

2 Retail businesses stop opening new stores, such as Gome, and even close existing ones.

3 Reduce sales staff's basic salary and commission, and even reduce sales staff.

These measures are necessary, but far from enough. Simply reducing marketing costs does not guarantee that businesses will not be able to safely spend an economic slump that lasts for much longer. The marketing department is the enterprise's "open source" department, no income, in any case to reduce spending, the day of depletion of resources will soon come. If the usual way to reduce marketing budgets can survive the crisis, there is no crisis, because the vast majority of enterprises will do.

Wang Ming Tam Data Marketing consulting agencies that the economic depression time of the marketing strategy is one of the most important enterprise strategy, but also a rare opportunity for enterprises to transform the marketing. The marketing measures mentioned here include the reduction, including the increase, involving the transformation of the marketing idea, the change of the marketing mode, the introduction of the marketing method, the optimization of the marketing process, the adjustment of the marketing IT system, the adjustment of marketing talents, organization and examination, and so on.

Three Directions of marketing transformation:

1 from extensive to accurate, from qualitative to quantitative;

Since it has reduced a lot of advertising investment, try to eliminate or reduce the feeling and experience of the head to determine the advertising investment, or the way the event planning. Because the previous waste of general advertising does not matter, now the cost is very little, and then waste half of the advertising is related to enterprise survival. All advertising input from the process monitoring, to the effect, which is the order measurement shift. The cost of sales is reduced after the use of the same to quantify and accurate, and directly linked to sales results.

2 from a single channel to multi-channel optimization;

After budget cuts, companies instinctively react by shifting from high-cost media to low-cost media such as television, to newspapers, from newspapers to networks, from salespeople to telemarketing. But don't forget that the only way to measure the quality of marketing is in return, not in the amount of advertising, such as CPM, or the cost of a direct mailing, or reduce total investment while creating a greater marketing waste.

In the Internet-centric multimedia era, there is no doubt that the best way to invest is the best combination of multiple media.

Like money management, Buffett must be at the right time to constantly change his portfolio. This is an art, but also a science, it needs to be explained that the multi media combination here is not a traditional advertising company to give you the recommended media purchase portfolio.

3 from the traditional marketing of the separation of advertising and sales, to advertising and order integration

The traditional advertisers for many years of brainwashing, so that China's marketing director and boss that advertising and promotion and sales of separation and independence, is a natural thing. Advertising is responsible for "bombing" in the sky, sales are responsible for "occupation of the village", as to whether the plane is not blown up to know, no one cares. But now marketing technology has been able to advertising and marketing and sales orders accurately linked, the economic situation is not good, the company's limited marketing effort to sell the results to spend.

4 change from one-off marketing activities to continuous, consistent and continuous optimization of marketing activities

Many companies have been planning a year of detailed marketing plan for the past one year, each marketing activity is also independent of each other, in the process of implementing the plan is only based on the experience of the last promotion and make some fine-tuning. The first enterprise is through the feeling and experience to learn, such as "We last in a certain media advertising, feeling sales good, next year continue to play" "a certain advertising planning repercussions very well, the next launch also use this version" and so on. Learning by experience is not enough, and feeling is often an illusion.

Wang Ming TAM Data Marketing advisory Body recommended enterprises to carry out more scientific marketing, when we really implement customer-centric, the enterprise is full customer development, a wave of activity, and every activity in the last activity of quantitative distraction based on the planning and improvement of the next marketing campaign.

Marketing Winter Practical tactics

The above three marketing transformation direction, may the reader feel too abstract, does not know how to realize, you we are in behind to propose some concrete methods for the reader.

One, reduce the brand advertisement investment, increase the sales advertisement investment, pay the advertisement fee according to the result of the sale

Ii. increasing the input of interactive media in the media mix and reducing the input of traditional media

Third, encourage low-cost sales media, reduce the volume of high cost sales media

Four, reduce offline input, increase online input, strengthen online and offline integrated marketing

V. Active sales in the course of service

Vi. reduce the input of customers and tap the potential of purchasing and purchasing of old customers

Vii. reduce the cost of potential customers and increase the conversion rate of sales

Viii. Optimizing the internal management system of the marketing department (optimizing the marketing process, opening up the market, sales and service barriers, improving marketing efficiency, establishing the marketing evaluation mechanism based on the result of sales)

Ten, the establishment of customer data and marketing data management system

adjourned）

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