Decreasing Marketing Budget

There seems to be a theme among businesses in a downturn, obviously reducing costs, but in particular the marketing budget seems to be the first budget to get slashed. Coming from a huge fan of marketing that hurts my feelings and aggravates me! It takes seconds to google why you shouldn't cut your marketing budget, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you haven't googled it yet.

CUTTING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN IT WILL HELP YOU!

• Numerous studies have shown that cutting back on marketing efforts and budgets during an economic downturn will not only hurt sales now, but will also in the future.
• If your marketing is standing still right now, it defeats the purpose of your past marketing efforts.
• Losing customers now, could mean they are gone permanently. In the past during a downturn, customers that switch their brand loyalty tend not switch back and when they do come back it is very costly to you.
• Your competitors have also cut back on their marketing budgets, so why not take advantage and gain that potential market share?
• Studies during the 1981-1982 recession show that firms maintaining or increasing their advertising experienced an average sales growth of 275% over the preceding five years.

Check out these links for more fun facts and opinions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yE_RvhH9XY&feature=related
http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingtipsandadvice/a/mrktrecession.htm
http://luxuryexperience.com/publishers_notes/publishers_monthly_notes/is_it_time_to_cut_the_marketing_budget?.html
http://brandandmarket.com/when-do-you-cut-your-marketing-budget/