I know the pandemic has added a level of caution to any decision on marketing investments. Know that it isn’t “just you” – we are seeing the same reticence with other clients too.

Not ideal for anyone but totally understandable.

However, investing today in a way to create just-in-time micro-targeted promotions will impact sales now – AND – when the economy turns around.

You may think that is counterintuitive – that increasing marketing spend during a pretty substantial market downturn is a non-starter. But there is evidence this is exactly the right time to make those investments.

The WPP Centre for Research & Development studied the 90-91 recession and showed companies that increased marketing spend during the recession got double the market share gains than those who didn’t. And, a McGraw Hill study of the 81-82 recession showed the same trend, but the numbers were even better – companies who maintained/increased spend had a five-year growth of 275% while those who cut costs achieved a dismal 19%.

In other words, those that invest during the downturn are taking away business from those that won’t. And will continue to do so after the market rebounds.

So the question is this: What are you doing right now to pull ahead of the competition? Are you investing and thinking and planning? Or are you sitting there waiting to see when the market returns to normal and you can start doing exactly what you were doing before.

Note: There is no normal anymore. It is all new. What you do next time won’t look like what you did last time. It will be step in a new direction.

You need to take it that step!

Fortune favors the bold. (See below for more on this.)

PS: for John Wick Fans

I originally had ended this post with the statement – “Be like John Wick” – to reinforce the fortune favors the bold. But like I usually (always? sometimes?) do, I hit the googles to double-check myself. What I found is there is some discussion on whether John Wick’s tattoo actually translates to “fortune favors the bold.” For those truly interested here is a link to a post where someone invests way too much time on the variations and distinctions associated with the translation.

For this post I chose the headline from this entry – which I think is a better translation for what I was getting at – bold action creates luck!