Now's Not the Time to Trim Marketing Budgets

Reuters, February 25, 2008, by Deborah L. Cohen

Enlist customer feedback, says Karen Woon, San Francisco-based director of marketing for Prophet, a brand consultancy that has offices worldwide.
    "This is a great time to tap into consumers' insights and understand what really matters to them," says Woon. "Think of it as an opportunity of sorts because many of your competitors will scale back."
   Give consumers a forum to provide insight on new products and services, she says, such as an area on your Web site where they can provide feedback. For its part, Prophet conducts an annual survey with both current and prospective clients dedicated to an area of content the firm is interested in learning more about. Most recently Prophet queried on the topic of innovation.
    "It gives us an opportunity to learn what's on people's minds," she says.
   Woon says tight budgets are a good time for the "test and learn" approach, where new marketing initiatives can be rolled out on a small scale and expanded only when they prove to be effective.
    "It makes a lot of sense to try a lot of initiatives on a small scale and see if they work," she says.

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