The secret to successful marketing in a sluggish economy

There are two basic views on what to do when times are tough: option one, cut your cloth, scale back, switch down/off all brand comms and focus on hitting short-term sales targets; option 2 is what we might call the Ayrton Senna Theory - “you can’t overtake 15 cars when the sun is shining, but you can when it’s raining”... you seek to outspend your competitors in order to gain market share.

And yet, Binet and Field argue, the data they have analysed and the case studies they have curated show the need to maintain both, and that there are huge dangers in judging success over the short-term and assuming that it will apply to the long-term.

In summary they say: first, the way in which long-term effects are generated is fundamentally different from how most short-term effects are produced. Although long-term affects always produce some short-term effects, the opposite isn’t true – long-term effects are not simply an accumulation of short-terms effects.

They also suggest a succession of short-term response-focused campaigns (e.g. promotions, book now campaigns), won’t succeed as strongly over the long-term as a single brand-building campaign; that the ideal campaign will include both brand and performance elements; that IPA data shows the optimum balance of brand vs performance is around 60:40, with variations by category; that emotionally-led campaigns produce considerably more powerful long-term business effects than rational persuasion campaigns; rational campaigns however, can be better in terms of immediate performance (and are therefore pretty seductive if you’re focused on short-term sales).

Travel brands will often try price promotions – but these are dangerous; there may be a short-term boost to sales, but there is long-term brand damage and far better, from a brand perspective, to run competitions, gifts and instant wins as they enhance brand-lust without price discounting.

So, what does all this mean for independent travel agents? For starters, even if some of your comms activity doesn’t have a direct call to action, it’s still worth doing. Please argue with anyone in your business that thinks recessionary times equals performance-only, or performance-heavily-dominated activity. Buy The Long and Short of It to form your own specific argument for your brand in your sector

Second, of course, find creative ways around discounting so that you still give your customers something, but don’t damage your brand.

Third, consider your full comms mix – if you cut back on brand advertising, can you still spend on brand PR activity? Would a performance-first influencer campaign work better? How can you use the full suite of tools at your disposal to continue to put emotional messages and stories in front of consumers?

Fourth, quote the Ayrton Senna line liberally, see this as a time of opportunity and do what you can to make sure that whatever the short-term weather, you’ll be in a better position when the economics improve.