10 Tips for Marketing During a Recession

Apartments.com held its first Virtual Summer Showcase June 18-19, featuring digital media and marketing presentations from a rockstar lineup of industry experts.

How to Market During a Recession? 10 Tips

Don’t stop spending on marketing. Keep your foot on the pedal.

This was the key point made by David Measer, of advertising agency RPA, during his session as part of the Apartments.com Virtual Summer Showcase. At RPA, the agency that created the Apartments.com personality Brad Bellflower, Measer is senior vice president, group strategic planning director.

“You can even build market share during a recession,” Measer said. “It’s proven that companies that choose to maintain advertising will experience higher sales during the recession and in the years immediately following.

Here are his top 10 tips for marketing during a recession.

1. Think of marketing as an investment

Even with retail sales falling by the most ever in the past quarter and the reality of unemployment figures expected to be in double-digits for at least another year, marketing remains essential when it comes to creating customers, communicating with customers and delivering to customers.

2. Use the quiet to your advantage

Recessions create a low-cost opportunity to grow market share. Studies show that there’s an equilibrium of a company’s market share and its share of voice. When competitors cut back, those companies that maintain or increase their voice will prosper then, and more importantly, later, during and after the recovery.

Some 92 percent of people think brands should keep marketing and “stay in the conversation.” By taking advantage of this opportunity, it’s easier to become a big fish in a small bowl.

3. Build relationships

Recessions are the perfect time to build relationships. Consumers alter their spending habits during a recession, with 89 percent willing to switch and try something new. Companies that are resilient, and remain active in the marketplace, are perceived to be competent, intelligent and well-managed. If a company disappears, many feel it must be on the verge of collapse.

4. Remember that customers are unusually open

Response to advertising during a recession may be higher than during stable times. In the midst of dramatic changes, customers are prepared to hear what you have to offer them as they work toward recovery.

5. Try something new

During a recession, the ground is soft for big, new ideas. This is the right time to think outside your current toolkit and process. New and innovative ideas can have an outsized and long-lasting effect. Recessions are laboratories for testing new ideas. Examples are YesPlz home-delivery coffee and Peloton.

6. Togetherness and cooperation are evergreen

With messaging, appeal to customers’ better angels of togetherness, community and cooperation. People have the tendency to bond during times of crisis. When the current reality is fear and change, consumers need connection and joy, and brands should try to deliver shared experiences.

7. Think omni-channel

Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) watch TV and use a digital device simultaneously. The average home has 11 Internet-connected devices — or 4.3 per person. During shelter-in-place, with laptops nearby, consumers are rediscovering the convenience of websites as a shopping tool.

Marketers must be sure to create seamless omni-channel experiences, whatever the device or format, to provide consistent delivery and meet customers’ expectations.

8. Be careful about discount dependency

Apply intelligent pricing techniques to avoid falling into the discounting spiral. It’s hard to dig out from short-term discounts, especially in the long-term rental market. Consider increasing both list prices and discounts in anticipation of frequent promotion. Monitor your price position more frequently.

9. Don’t go dark

If you do, it will take about five years to get back to where you were when you left.

Losses in brand equity, brand awareness and brand consideration are expensive to gain back (or worse). Recovery of lost market share from going dark will then must occur when prices are higher and ad spending rises.

10. Keep your foot on the pedal

Don’t stop spending — you can even build market share during a recession. Companies that choose to maintain advertising will experience higher sales during the recession and in the years immediately following.

Marketing dollars go further during recessions. It’s said that consumers spend even more attention to marketing during tough times. They want to hear what you have that could help them recover.

If you absolutely must cut something, start with outdoor marketing, since most people are less likely to be out and about. You can balance that by increasing your social media spend.

Recap compiled by Paul Bergeron, a freelance reporter and CoStar contributor, who covers apartment management.