MARKET CHANGES ARE BLOWING IN THE WIND
If the single thread in marketing circa 2009-10 is your message, which is based upon your values and strategies, and the market, the target keeps moving and moving fast, then the key is to go with the REAL flow as it exists today, not the old, comfortable one, or the imagined one. The most important parts of your marketing effort need to be 1) your finger on the pulse of the market and 2) your ability and willingness to take advantages of opportunities as they arise.
By the way, they arise for all of us every minute of every day – we just need to spot them, or create them. Even negatives are opportunities – they all have a flip side.
Regardless of our industry, we Americans find ourselves in what seems like a pretty negative spot right now. We are in two wars that just won’t stop; we are battered by an economy that is just coming out of a recession; we await a crash in commercial real estate; we fear for our jobs if we still have them; we are competing with massive numbers of high-energy, intelligent Indians and Chinese; we are exhausted because staffs have been cut and workloads have not; markets for our products seem to have dried up; banks won’t give loans; and on and on. We are leaking buckets, endless tales of woe.
These negatives present endless opportunities for creative thinkers:
If we create alternatives to gasoline, the oil money spigot will be closed to terrorists and the wars will be won. With energy alternatives, American goods will cost less to deliver and become more desirable. And how many new jobs will come from a green economy?
Commercial real estate is awash with empty office buildings, shopping centers, and former big box stores. How about splitting up these properties and letting small business people, artists, etc. share smaller spaces. Not everyone can or wants to work at home! We will need more assisted living facilities in the future – how about gutting and remodeling some of the big box structures for this purpose, or other purposes that mesh with our demographic trends?
People are still shopping, but they are doing more of it online – just witness the growth of Fed-X and UPS. Hands-on stores in shopping centers can now serve the web sites, rather than vice-versa. Or all new shopping experiences, discoveries, can be created – like Anthropologe, which serves a growing number of devoted, wealthy, interesting, educated, intelligent women.
Fantastically talented and experienced people over 60 are being downsized? How about forming new companies with nothing BUT these people, who are all experts in their fields and have many productive years left? Younger HR people won’t hire them – let’s see if they can COMPETE with them!
Residential construction is down? We need rental properties for Echo Boomers; we need exquisitely detailed but smaller “jewel boxes” for Gen Xers; we need extensive remodels for McMansions – multi-media room offices, elevators, wider hallways, new lighting, etc. for elderly parents, playrooms for grandchildren.
Exhausted because you work for a downsized company? This is your opportunity to start your own business – maybe outsource yourself to your current employer.
All sorts of demographic changes have occurred, as I have described in my blogs. This means old markets are no longer viable – but there are new markets for new products.
Banks are more careful about giving loans, so we will have stronger banks in the future – and venture capitalists are waiting to see your solid new ideas.
Bob Dylan said, “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.” I believe he was talking about the winds of change. I think change is in the air again – you’ve got to be blind not to see it.
Many cannot, because they are blinded by fear and depression. That’s what recessions are all about. If you can rise above your fears, change brings opportunity. A lot of people are going to get wealthy as our economy rebounds. Be one of them.
You are a marketing guru. Just do it.
Ed Sucherman
THE MARKETING MACHINE
http://www.edsucherman.com/edsblog
Ed, I totally agree with your comment regarding people making a lot of money as this country comes out of recession. In my industry, medical sales, I have witnessed a significant amount of frustration, which has led to an apathetic approach towards finding a new medical device sales job from so many out-of-work pharmaceutical reps. They must realize that jobs in medical sales are still available, although not in as great numbers as previously. However, the jobs will be filld by those who sieze the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the masses. My web site, http://www.gorillamedicalsales.com/blog gives many tips for surviving this downturn.
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