Wow, are the negative waves just flying all over the place right now, or what? Maybe it’s the fervor of the political season, that every-other-year bombardment of our senses with all manner of innuendos, exaggerations, accusations, intimidations, threats, warnings, prognostications, and downright lies. “This economy is so terrible right now, there are so many things wrong that the whole thing is going down the toilet unless you vote for (insert candidate name here) in the upcoming election!” It’s enough to make a sane person want to jump off the Brooklyn bridge!
It is the custom of the election period to focus very acutely on every little piece of bad information coming from the economists. It’s the only way to build market momentum for a change. And what happens in the meantime, at least until the election is over…..absolutely nothing! Business owners, concerned for what lies ahead, are hoarding cash as if their mattresses depended on it. Hiring decisions are delayed, investment in equipment that could streamline production is put off, and worst of all, dollars that could go to continuing to market the company are put away into that mattress with the rest of the cash.
There are even rumblings of a double-digit recession. There is strong evidence that this will not happen, and although we may not see a “rocketing” of the economy out of the doldrums, there are reasons to believe that we could see anywhere from a 3% to 4.5% growth rate by the end of the year.
According to William Patalon, Executive Editor of Money Morning (http://moneymorning.com/), one of the main reasons will be a resurgence of business investing leading the way. He indicates that over the past seven months, we have seen an increase in industrial production of 9.7% with semiconductor equipment orders up 646%, raw steel production is up 89%, heavy truck sales are up 75% and railcar loadings are up 22%.
A second important event, says Mr. Patalon, is that we are starting to see the addition of jobs, which means consumer spending won’t be far behind. Most recent reports of losses of 90K jobs doesn’t reflect the fact that the professional and business service sectors are adding jobs at the fastest pace since October of 2007.
The take-away here is that without resorting to a “Pollyanna” approach that everything is going to be just fine, it is likewise imprudent to act out of fear and retrench in an effort to hold out for better times. A continued plan of intelligent, well thought-out marketing can take advantage of an economy in recovery, albeit a slow one.
Dave Chase, chief marketing officer for Altus Alliance (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/altus-alliance) studied companies that prospered during the Depression. He found, “Generally speaking, those companies that not only survived but also thrived during the Great Depression were those that continued to act as though there was nothing wrong and that the public had money to spend. In other words, they advertised.”
So, how is your economic mood? You can choose to be depressed, at least until after the election, or you can pick yourself up and get out there in front of your target market.
If this seems something that you need help with, we’d be happy to help. Just drop us an email.
Regards,
David
