Cutting costs

And I bet, like most of us, you didn't really know where to start, or, for that matter, when to stop fighting the cut of yet another 20%.

Well, I'm sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you, but what I can focus on are some of the examples a range of marketing directors, SVPs and CMOs have established over the past decade when they found themselves in situations like this.

Ask your customers

Before cutting anywhere take a couple of days to evaluate you position. How do you rate your customer awareness? Is it high enough or do you need to pay attention to your customer maintenance? Is your brand's value proposition well established, or do you have a diffuse brand image out there? Have you differentiated your brand from your competitors', or is your brand lost amongst its category? I know these questions are simple, and you might already have answers to all of them. But, you know what? A recent Forrester Research survey shows that most marketing directors forget to define answers to these questions before they start cost cutting. Far too often they arbitrarily remove the 'less safe' media investments-like online, direct-marketing and billboard commitments-as an easy cut. But in doing this blindly they ignore the untested possibility that one or all of these, ostensibly dispensable, elements may have been of great value to customer awareness, promoting the brand's value proposition and its market differentiation. So, remember: ask your customers about your brand's status before you consider cutting the 'easy' stuff adrift.

Be creative

Having evaluated your brand's position by consulting your customers' perceptions of it, try to approach your brand management both tactically and creatively. Orange, as an example, offered students in San Francisco a free car paint job. The only conditions was that the paint colour was the Orange orange! Now, imagine the cost of this tactic against and the value it gained the brand, in the streets and in the press? Being creative doesn't necessarily cost a fortune. But it can save you one.

Don't forget the build your brand

Some years ago Shell decided to redirect its total marketing budget into direct marketing from Denmark. The response was great. But, after two years, brand awareness among the population was as low as ever, so low that it was starting to effect sales. Devoting its marketing investment into one media channel didn't do the trick. And the real danger in the years of this single-channel strategy was the chance that consumers would forget the brand. Remember: by this stage you've probably invested millions of dollars in building your brand over the years. Why destroy that effort and investment by putting restricting your budget's application?

Evaluate your partners, but don't start all over again

A classic cost-cutting manoeuvre is changing suppliers to gain lower prices. Read my lips. This won't help you on the long run. First, most of your expenditure is probably on media anyway. So, assuming you have a decent media deal, all you can cut are the agency and print fees. These are pretty marginal in the total scheme. More importantly, your agency probably has years of experience in handling your brand. If you were to turn tail and switch to another party during a crisis, I bet you'd lose half-a-year's momentum in just running the pitch again, changing the focus and building a new campaign. Could this possibly be worth a 1% saving? I doubt it.

Be consistent

Cost-cutting time is no time to change your branding style dramatically. Remember: what consumers really want now is consistency. Consumers want a brand they can trust, believe and count on. And now you're changing your branding style because you have to save money?

Good luck with your cost cutting. Only time will tell how well your tactics worked.