Home locked Why tough times can be good times for smart marketers Jason Eisner May 15, 2013 We’re now firmly in the middle of unpredictable external economic factors, so it’s time to give focus and quality attention to the areas we can control to ensure we’re planning for future success. Smart marketers can outperform their competitors and lay a strong platform for growth if they learn from the lessons of the past. According to Harvard Business School’s John Quelch, marketing driven companies can learn from the lessons of the past and realise that when the going gets tough the tough get going – in a marketing sense. Here are the top 5 ways to come out the other side of the current ‘tough times’ in a much better position than you may be now – and certainly better than your competitors who may take the ‘retreat’ option: 1. Don’t invest less on marketing – just invest smarter This is not the time to cut marketing. It is well documented that brands who maintain (some even increase) their marketing during a recession – when naive competitors are cutting back – can increase market share and their return on investment at a lower cost than during good economic times. Do an unemotional assessment of your planned marketing budget. Make a list of the mandatory and proven ‘must haves’ and the less compelling ‘nice to haves’. Then ask yourself “what if we dropped the ‘nice to haves and added that budget to the