The word recession scares people. Recession is synonymous with no money, no opportunities, bad for business amongst other horrible things. Recession affects everything, from people’s mental state to the economy. Economic decline in industrial activity and trade, fall in GDP, followed by people cutting off their spending, and then everything goes downhill.
But does everything really go downhill? Surprisingly, there are upsides of being in recession. Being in a downhill state unexpectedly creates an opportunity for our business to thrive, only if we choose to see setbacks as challenges to push us forwards, not as setbacks to stop us from improving or surviving.
When you are in tough times, so is your consumer. See this as a chance to dive deeper into your consumer’s mind and understand what they are doing, thinking, feeling, and most importantly needing. In recession, people change their priorities from what they want to what they need. This means a shift in how they spend, what they spend, even down to what they want to see or hear. By identifying the shift what consumers want, you can create temporary changes to your business to attract consumers, which results in stronger brand loyalty because you answer to your consumer’s needs during tough times.
Marketers are also challenged to communicate more clearly to consumers what value the brand has to offer to them. Making sure consumers appreciate financial, logistical and psychological benefits of the brand compared to others has more long term benefits than using price reductions as a strategy to survive recession. With investing more effort into marketing brand value, consumers will have a more lasting impression of the brand, trusting and being more loyal to it compared to other brands they do not know of.
Recession is the time to truly learn what your consumers need, not just want. Use this golden opportunity to know your consumers inside out. When we answer consumer’s needs when they need it the most, we are investing in the present and future brand loyalty through gaining their trust and giving a satisfying experience.
