In December last year, I wrote on effective advertising strategies for slow economic times. Recently, I found a comparison of advertising by two similar brands during the Great Depression that supports my thoughts on advertising during recession.
Please review the image below. It shows that Post was as big a cereal manufacturer and marketer as Kellogg’s in 1929. They cut back on advertising during the Great Depression of 1930s and could not sustain themselves. Kelloggs, on the other hand, maintained its advertising levels during the same period. They emerged as the brand leader in the US cereal market.
Moral of the story: Best reason to advertise in 2009 is….2010
(P.S. I am not implying to write off 2009. Just maintain or increase the adspend and you would gain market share now and when the economy recovers.)
