In times of economic and political upheaval, people get nervous and don’t spend money as freely. That applies to individuals. It also applies to business purchasing, which is, after all, done by people too.

Look at what we’ve had going on recently: On the political front, an assassination attempt, a sitting president decides not to run for re-election, and there’s a presidential election in a few weeks

On the economic side, the largest one day drop in the stock market in 2 years, a major industrial strike, and, locally here in Tampa Bay, 3 tropical storms in a short period of time.

And all this is just the latest news. Since the beginning of the Pandemic in 2019 (at least), we have been on the craziest economic rollercoaster you have ever seen, and there is no end in sight. Yeah, that would make a lot of people nervous.

Now we know from experience that is not going to last forever. Eventually people realize that we aren’t all about to die, and they get on with living, and buying.

We have twenty years’ experience running marketing programs across a wide range of business sizes and industries. I can tell you there are two possible answers to deal with this sort of situation:

1. Hunker down and hope to survive until things get better. Cut back on spending, including on marketing.

or

2. Increase and improve your marketing.

Now which of these sounds like a winner?

We’ve seen this kind of cycle before, in 2011 and more recently in 2019 with The Pandemic. A few of our clients pulled in their horns and crossed their fingers. Those companies went out of business.

Or you expand your marketing to make it through the bad time.

Many businesses will cut back on their marketing. When things bounce back, then you have an opportunity to take a bigger piece of the pie. That business is going to go somewhere. Why not scoop it up?

I don’t know about you, but I like pie.