For many print businesses, current business activity is to cut costs, batten down the hatches and ride out the recession “until things return to normal”.

Guess what? Expecting things to return to how they were before the economic downturn is probably unrealistic. Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric notes: “ ‘holding on’ until things get back to normal is a mistake for most companies – what we are seeing now is the ‘new normal’ ”

This means that a business strategy of doing what you’ve always done and waiting for your market to improve is doomed to failure. Business will not go back to how it was.

• So how will marketing strategies have to evolve and change for companies to survive and prosper in the 'new normal' that lies in the wake of the recession?
• What is the legacy from the downturn and recession?
• What will this mean for managing your business and finding more sales of a better quality?

And if you have to address fundamental shifts in market behaviour, what should you be doing NOW?

How things have changed

1. Scepticism and lack of trust – Many customers have information overload from marketing and have noted the collapse of many print based businesses. This has driven some to consider the marketing being used with indifference, frustration, disappointment or outright hostility.  

- Businesses are not trusted as before.

What does this mean? Marketing as performed pre recession is unlikely to appeal, which means that your stated core values and the messages used to promote your business needs to align with changed customer perceptions. Rebuilding trust reputation and confidence may be as important to your recovery as innovation and pricing. Example, AXA is trying to establish trust as a key market differentiator, emphasising the importance of delivering on basic promises.

2. New buyer and seller priorities – Collaboration up and down the value chain will become yet more critical. Looking after your suppliers to the same extent as your customers will become more important as better companies leverage relationships to create “virtual” business empires to create sustainable competitive advantage. Successful marketing strategies will rely on a thorough understanding of the post recession customer and their changed attitudes: you need to find ways to add value to your customer’s offerings at all times.

3. New market structures and increased competitiveness – weaker companies will continue to fail. Stronger companies will continue to take their business. Also, some larger companies have already adopted strategies aimed specifically at killing off weaker smaller competition. Post recession, power will continue to become more and more highly concentrated and competitiveness will get worse not better. You need to differentiate or die.

 - But you already knew that, right?

4. A consumer shift to thrift – A new type of shopper has emerged in the US and Europe, the thrifty value focussed consumer with reduced “aspirational” luxury spend. This will challenge marketing assumptions like brand loyalty. This will affect the business you are pitching for and the way you need to approach your marketplaces.

5. Barriers to international expansion – Many print based businesses (which includes print managers) emphasise the importance of international growth. However, it is likely that world finance will be depressed for many years creating a deglobalisation pressure. Collaboration and partnership may become the priority for Western companies.

So, post recession, if business is not likely to recover to how it was before what does this changed marketplace mean you should be doing right now?

You need different and better arguments about value for money which will allow you to differentiate between you and your competitors, and ensure that your sales teams consistently work in a way which leverages those messages. You need to provide better perceived value for money, which isn’t about being cheaper for everything. The aim is to both become the supplier of choice in your market and in turn, build the lifetime value of each customer.

The arguments you use to identify approach and service these markets are often referred to as Value Propositions. Good VP’s are business critical: when properly constructed they will force you to concentrate on what your offerings are really worth, and help you to make better choices about where to focus your limited resources.

WCA can help. Contact us for remarkable arguments that make you more money and the strategies and tactics to deliver them.

Further reading:

Chartered Institute of Marketing,

The Levitt Group,

Marketing Review Vol 10 No 1.