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While cutting back on marketing spends seems to be the most logical weapon against the downturn, experts advise otherwise. Marketing spends, according to the Harvard Business Review, has turned out to be a contributor to profits, and not just an unavoidable expense but a means of achieving objectives. The perceived market slowdown can not rule over the importance of promotional programmes. Advertisement budgets should be related to the company\'s goals instead of last year\'s sales or to next year\'s promises. Only a company courageous enough to stay in the professed slowdown fight, when everyone else is playing safe, can bring about a dramatic change in its market position. The rationale that a company can afford a cutback in marketing budgets, just because everybody else is cutting back, is illogical. If we look back to some of the facts from the past recession years, we learn that advertising has always acted as an anti-recession tool. In a report on the year 1970 recession, American Business Press (ABP) and Meldrum & Fewsmith showed that sales and profits could be maintained and increased in recession and the subsequent years by the companies willing to maintain an aggressive marketing posture. Similarly the ABP/Meldurm & Fewsmith study on the 1974-1975 recession revealed that companies, which did not cut marketing expenditures, experienced higher sales and net income during the recession and the consecutive years. Following the 1981-1982 recession, Management Review declared that spending money and adding to staff could be helpful in gaining market share during recession. Thus, rather than waiting for the business to return to normal, it is the right time for companies to cash in the growth opportunities that several others are leaving. So, what are you waiting for? Get marketing!
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