By E. Mahony – spotlightideas.co.uk

I’ve been mining the blogphere, recently, for upbeat / constructive posts on the economic downturn. Here are some of my favourite ones on marketing in general.

MARKETING / BRANDING – GENERAL

• High Peaks Resort’s Recession Marketing Strategy - Influential Marketing Blog – Nov ’08 - Rohit Bhargava looks at High Peaks Resort in New York state who have created a word-of-mouth / publicity wave by tying in their rates (bedroom and restaurant) with Dow Jones. The bottom line, though, of this success is in the way the resort has demonstrated its understanding of, and sympathy for, their customers by taking such a price strategy risk.
• How to Ride the Recession the Steve Jobs Way - Micro Persuasion - Oct 08 - Like Rohit (of Influential Marketing Blog – above entry), Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion) focuses on the positives (with examples), too. In this case it is Steve Jobs and Apple. He asks the question ‘what is our genius’ (and ‘soar with your strengths’), and discusses how things should be simplified (chiming with his ‘minimalist approach’), and that brands now should focus on being prime brands – ‘don’t compromise on quality’.
• Opportunity of a lifetime - Seth Godin – Mar ’08 – In the words of Seth Godin ‘The opportunity is to find substantial opportunities (in any field) that deliver real value and have a future.’
• 5 Tips for Recession Marketing - Marketing HeadHunter – Jun ’08 - Harry Joiner of Marketing Head Hunter focuses on the opportunities that the downturn offers, in particular, in branding (he, also, offers useful tips / insights about SEO, SEM, conversions, copy, direct mail during the downturn) – downturns actually create opportunities for small players to increase their brand visibility because there’s less noise in the market, ‘you should zig when your competitors zag’. This is similar to a comment I noticed on the Financial Times microsite ‘Beat The Downturn’. And something else worth looking at (and quoting) from that site, too: ‘In every recession of the past 90 years, independent studies show that the businesses who increase their advertising spend are the ones who survive the tough times and thrive afterwards’.
• Marketing in a recession - Seth Godin – Mar ’08 – Seth’s main take on the downturn (this post as opposed to the one mentioned earlier) so far is how brands should adapt the brand story for the economic downturn. As well as giving other general advice.
• Free Whitepaper: “Marketing in a Recession” - FutureNow – Jul ’08 – FutureNow has a useful white paper on marketing in the downturn, focusing on the following subjects: – increase market share – increase sales from existing traffic – reduce customer acquisition costs – increase lifetime value of customers – use your existing marketing tools better improve the ROI of your search and pay-per-click campaigns – reap the value of a continuous optimization discipline
• eco cheap: the new eco chic - Tom Fishburne – Jun ’08 – Tom Fishburne looks at how discount chains such as Aldi are now in vogue. And related to this, Reuters have an interesting piece (although March 2008) on discount spending ‘New Survey Reveals Coupons and Discounts Drive Consumer Spending’

MARKETING BY SUBJECT CATEGORIES

Digital Marketing

• The Collaboration Economy – Micro Persuasion – Oct 08
• Good News In Bad Times For Digital Marketing - Twist Image – Oct 08
• Online Shines in UK as Old Media Ads Dim – eMarketer – Oct 08
• 10 Ways Digital Can Help You Thrive in a Recession - Logic + Emotion - Mar 08
• 3 Steps to Recession-Proof Your Online Marketing – FutureNow – Mar 08
• 11 Recession-proof internet marketing methods – Conversation Marketing – Jan 08

Social Media / Blogging / PR

• 25 Ways Social Media Prepares You for the Downturn - Chris Brogan - Oct 08
• Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn - Web Strategy by Jeremiah - Oct 08
• Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession - Groundswell - Feb 08
• 13 Tips to Recession Proof Your Blog - PROBlogger - Oct 08
• Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm? - PR2 Squared - Oct 08

Search / PPC / Affiliate Marketing

• magnify360 Launches New Paid Search Tool: Google Cost Optimizer - Search Engine Watch - Oct 08
• SEO Tops Recession Internet Marketing Tactics - Top Rank Blog - Oct 08
• 7 Recession Strategies For B2B SEO - Search Engine Land - Oct 08
• As consumers cut back, marketers offer “recession specials” - Search Engine Watch – Sep 08
• Recession Marketing: Avoid the Fear Factor - ClickZ - Feb 08
• Holiday Recession Opportunities - Reve News - Nov 08

Marketing – other

• Your Recession Marketing Lifeline: Repeat & Referral Business (Email Marketing) – Constant Contact - Oct 08
• Recession Proof Your Startup - Scobleizer - Oct ’08
• 7 Strategies for B2B Marketing during a Recession: The Definitive Guide - Future Lab – Jun 08
• Sign of the Times: Marketing in a Recession – Modern B2B Marketing – Nov 08
• 7 Time-tested Ways to Dig Out from a Recession (Small Business Marketing) – Duct Tape Marketing - Sept 08
• Recession Beater #4: Small Business Marketing Consulting – Info Marketing Blog – Oct 08
• 5 marketing musts during a recession – Drew’s Marketing Minute – Oct 08
• Five Recession Lessons from an E-commerce Old-Timer – Ecommerce Consulting.com – Nov 08
• When Consumer Confidence is Low… – Future Now - Aug 08
• What Consumers do in a downturn - This blog sits at – Oct 08

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