I clearly understand the fear to reduce expenses in harsh economic times. However, what I am confused about is why companies slash marketing costs or toss their marketing plans all together. Isn’t the company’s objective to make money? How does that happen without a marketing plan – os is the plan to just ride these hard times through using the old customer base?

Yes, cutting back unnecessary expenses is a good thing but reducing marketing expenses can also have a negative effect. A rule of thumbs is that it takes a person seeing your company name seven to ten times before it’s stored into their long term memory. Clearly you can see the less you advertise or market the less you will be seen, in return reducing new perspective buyers.

There are ways to limit or reduce expenses without harming your marketing objectives. For instance if you plan or are attending a trade show you can look into ways to save money. Renting your booth equipment was mentioned earlier. In Absolute Exhibits case we do rentals on a daily basis – it is 85% of our business – we know the ropes, how to cut costs on the show floor for electrical, plumbing, rigging, along with shipping and drayage costs.

Writing off your marketing plan by eliminating trade shows can be disastrous. If you are not there and your competitor is – what does that imply to your client or prospective customer? Think like a minimalist – but do not be a no show!