Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 21, 2008
A GLOOMY ECONOMIC scenario, consumer lifestyles are expected to change. Businesses are likewise expected to adjust to these changes.
Marketers cannot operate the same way they did in robust times. The market becomes a buyers market and competition becomes even more cutthroat.
Today’s economic downturn is nearly the same as the 1930s great depression that hit the US but its scale and impact is much larger and more adverse. This is because 24 percent of the world’s GDP is from the US and many developed, developing and emergent markets rely on the US for trade. In the 1930s, global trade and financing such as the scale today was virtually non-existent.
Scenarios marketers face
Following are potential landscapes in an economic meltdown that marketers need to be aware of:
Contraction versus expansion. Marketers and businesses need to review their performance and operations with more detail. While expansion can happen even in an economic downturn, marketers must objectively and cautiously assess the demand side of the expansion. Nonperforming assets or liabilities need to dissolved or liquidated quickly.
Highly and sustained demand product and service lines need to be supported, if not built even more strongly. Now is the time to feed or reallocate more investments to star, even cash cow products or services. Extending your star product’s glitter into new markets is wise where demand has been identified. Question mark products may have hidden opportunities after careful assessment.
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