What a difference two weeks makes, from the ridiculous to the tragic:
Consumers cut healthcare expenses
And every day from now on, we will read stories about consumer spending slowing, retailers suffering, and even luxury home defaults. A scan from this morning turned up a bleak holiday forecast for Neiman-Marcus.
The next few months looks like more uncertainty, followed by a realization that we are in a recession and a more brutal assessment of the impact of that on sales and consumer demand. The bright light review of all marketing and advertising programs has already started, and will intensify. Marginal and “nice-to do” programs will fall off the list. The “tried and true” programs will need to demonstrate that they actually work, in terms of generating new business, or they face the axe.
For luxury marketers, that means a closer look at print budgets, and more effort to measure the results – did the phone ring or website traffic increase? A closer look at expensive direct mail (like to the Amex Platinum list) to find out if anybody opens this stuff – or does it move from the mailbox right into recycling? A more skeptical look at big events, that generate lots of people that want to drink your free champagne, but probably not buy anything.
And instead, perhaps a greater investment in more intimate events, with real prospects. More attention to encouraging (in a cool, subtle way) customer referral. And (as you might expect from me), a greater investment in web marketing – but with even better tracking and measurement than before.
Ok, so I run a luxury ad network – but a recession highlights the challenges facing lux marketers over the next 12 months. It will be hard to stimulate demand in this climate – the mood is ugly. The short-term goal is to connect with consumers that are self-identifying their interests – via what they are reading, searching on and watching. These consumers would appear to be more ‘in the mood’ – you don’t read too many web stories about fractional real estate unless you are interested.
So today’s to-do? Go long on Google. And more on how to find these consumers, besides search engine marketing, over the coming weeks.