Tom Anthony Personal Blog

I read an interesting take on the current economic situation in an automobile dealer’s vendor newsletter I subscribe to. It had the message right up to the point it started selling a particular product the publisher offers, then went off the tracks – anyway – here is the top part with my commentary below…

 Now’s Not the Time to Slow Down 

 

According to a recent J.D. Power and Associates forecast, new-vehicle sales in 2008 are expected to reach their lowest levels since 1994, dropping to 14.95 million cars and light trucks. This obviously isn’t good news for our industry, and your first instinct may be to cut back on spending (including marketing and advertising), ride out the rough times and wait for sunnier weather. But if you do that, you’d be missing a huge opportunity. 

 

First things first… if you’re experiencing a slow-down in sales, the last thing you’ll want to do is to cut back on the only thing that can drive sales – namely advertising and marketing. 

 

Second, slowdowns like this are an opportunity for the marketing savvy among us to capture market and mind share so that when things rebound, as they most certainly will, you’re in the driver’s seat.  

Here is where the author went off the tracks in my opinion:

One way to accomplish this is to ramp up your traditional media spending during this lull. Chances are you’ll even probably see some favorable media rates…

O.K. first, traditional media like what? Newspapers? A bad investment for most businesses – readership is in a deep decline especially among folks under 40. (I can defend that stat with facts)

Traditional media like local radio? National statistics show overall use of radio declining, and with the rise in Satellite radio listenership the only logical deduction is that the audience for live local radio is also in decline. (And I can defend that stat with facts)

I could go on, and you could probably argue both sides of the media penetration issue. That being said the Internet is the 900 pound gorilla in the room.  I would consider placing shrinking budgets into growing media, not declining media.  But how?

O.K. – that’s another blog for another time – better yet – a Web Strategies Podcast J

This is a real email from an old friend and colleague of mine – Chandler Turner

Tom, I think you told me that you were looking for e–business sites in the $10,000 to $15,000 range, is that right? I have talked to a 75 year old company here with loyal clients that IS NOT cross-selling its divisions at all and one manager who ″gets it″. However, they really do not need an e–business site but moreover; they would NEVER agree to spend that kind of money.

Here is my response

Well, first it would not necessarily cost them a do–over price. Actually it will not necessarily cost them anything at all – not if they currently have any budget allocated for generating sales. Most of what I do is strategic – not building the web site –but getting people to go there and then do something (like buy or call). If they spend money now on marketing or branding or advertising or public relations then all they need to do is shift some allocations around and get a better return on investment by using the web properly.

That said – it’s not a build it and forget it deal. In fact it is the exact opposite. I can’t tell you how many companies I work with that tell me their web site does nothing, only to find they built it three years ago and have not updated a single word. For me it’s about results. Like measuring visitors to the site, determining where they came from, and why they went to a particular page. It is counting how many sales came from the web and figuring out what works with their particular target market. It’s not about graphics; it’s about conversion from visitor to customer. Besides, these days just about anybody can build a web site. The thing I bring to the table is what happens next.

Sounds like that manager friend of yours could use a lunch with you and me to put perspective on his particular issue. What do you think?

tom