Going nuts? Don’t cut your marketing!
By Jillian Anderson | September 15, 2009
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Diamond’s increased advertising budget for Emerald Nuts proves to be a success.
A couple of months ago, Kyle wrote an excellent post highlighting 5 Reasons Not to Cut Your Marketing Budget in a Recession. His points being:
- Your reputation can suffer.
- When times are tough, people look for deals.
- If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.
- Marketing in a recession can give you a competitive advantage.
- Cut advertising, cut market share.
I want to take another look at the fourth point here, as marketing in a recession really does give you an advantage. In truth, marketing ANY time gives you an advantage. But when the economy is down and a lot of businesses are cutting their marketing budgets, your dollars can go even further because there are fewer or weaker messages out there to compete with.
AND I even came prepared with an example.
The Stocks section of Sunday’s Rapid City Journal featured a “behind the brand” look at Diamond Foods – makers of snacks including Emerald Nuts and now Pop Secret. It turns out our “recession” has not taken a toll on the sales of their relatively healthy treats.
According to the Associated Press,
The company has been plowing more dollars into building its Emerald brand: Ad spending is up 23 percent so far this fiscal year… Emerald’s sales at grocery stores grew 30 percent last quarter.
Analysts expect more gains when it reports fourth-quarter results later this month.
That’s an amazing statement! They have some pretty good ads that came from this new budget, like the one below. Not only do they have the good tv spots, they also have all of the new ads on their snazzy website and YouTube, taking their offline messages to their online audience – sort of.
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Well played Diamond Foods! Great product, great packaging and great ads. But I have to dock you a couple of points for the lack of web marketing. I give your marketing a 7.6 out of 10. Keep it up (and call me about SEO). ;)
It is essential for companies large and small to understand the importance of marketing as part of business and strategy. When money is tight, marketing is often the first thing cut. This certainly should not be the case. If your marketing is not providing sufficient ROI to justify it, or if you don’t measure ROI to justify it – something is wrong. Don’t cut your marketing, reset it, or invest better to make it work!
“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” -Thomas Jefferson (and he didn’t even work for a marketing agency)
Besides…the recession might be over.
About the authorJillian gets emotional over food, prefers baths to showers and still uses personal checks despite the Visa commercials. She is fascinated by the intricate elements of organic gardening, loves Truth, and says nice things only when she really means it. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
