Marketing strategies to survive in a recession

The 2007-2009 recession has dramatically affected businesses and consumers around the world. High unemployment figures along with a downturn in other economic indicators alarmed consumers and brought about feelings of uncertainty and instability for their futures. In response, they adopted a multitude of new purchasing patterns like preferring cheaper items, trading down their regular brands for generic ones, delaying non-urgent purchases, etc. During recessions, marketers feel the impact of the recession much sooner than other departments because of new consumer behaviours, their reduced purchasing power, and consequently decreasing sales. However, this challenging new environment might be a source of new growth opportunities for those companies who can respond quickly and adapt their marketing strategies to changing consumer preferences. Therefore, it is crucial for marketers to understand how these behaviour shifts will influence their business, and use this to formulate new marketing strategies. In this article, after reviewing literature on how consumer behaviour changes during recessionary times and how companies tailor their marketing strategies, we illustrate some practical examples of how companies modified their marketing strategies during the last recessions.