If Your Clients Want to Cut Costs...Tell Them This

With all the talk about the petrol price hike and the impending doom and gloom of rising prices and inflation, you're probably aware that many clients are going to be cutting costs. It's the standard thing that corporates do and one of the first areas that they'll be looking at is the Advertising/PR /Marketing/Events budget.

Oh yes, after they've analysed all their non-key business areas, they'll start looking at creative communications. The smart companies know that this would be wrong. But, unfortunately, many businesses will look to slash to get cash and this is not good news for us in the business.

If you're not prepared for this, then get ready for it. If your business is insulated from these, well and good. But you can expect that you'll have to bargain harder or throw in some valued added freebies to retain prices and margins. And watch out for that old clanger about, "eh, petrol prices are uplerr, economy not so good, give a discountlerr."

So what do you tell your clients during these times? What do you do to educate them and save their business while looking after your bottomlines as well?

The answer is, tell them directly and honestly that cutting the comms budget is a big, big mistake, especially when times are not going well.

Reason being that all of our clients now have to work harder to win the customers' ringgit. You have to be more creative, aggressive and find ways to increase your presence in the market. When the going gets tough, creative comms is what keeps things going.

Strangling this lifeline is like depriving the business of a very vital form of sustenance. Simple as that.

I mean, if you want to get someone's attention in a noisy place with lots of people, you're going to shout more or make more noise, wave your hands and do hell of a lot to get their attention. Sure, I hear some wise guys saying, they'll just walk over and whisper in their ear. That'd be great if you're trying to chat up that bombshell babe (or hunk to be politically correct for my female readers), but when you need to get the message across to a whole room, whispering isn't going to do much good.

The answer is to get your message out there. You have to be active, get their attention and be creative in your communications.

This is why cutting the budget doesn't help at all. Not at all. You cut, you do less and you get less. Simple as that.

The really successful companies know this. This is why the fast food chains, clothing retailers, hotels and so on actually increase their comms budgets. They know it's a lifeline and they need to spend more and get their messages across when times are not exactly great.

This is the message that we should be telling more corporates. It's in their best interest to not just cut cost. But to work with us strategically with a more aggressive budget.

To back this up, you can also dabble in some other areas to make the package more attractive to them:

1. Offer value added ideas in addition to maintaining the comms budget.
2. Do more research -- show them how each ringgit they spend makes a difference. Show them where the cash is going.

3. Show them results.
4. Adopt new advertising methods such as online media, sms and viral marketing instead of standard ATL and BTLs.

5. Niche the whole thing. Focus on specific markets and target the comms to them. The sniper's motto is one shot, one kill. The shotgun shooter's motto is...I don't know if they have one.

Anyway, that's about it. So when customers and clients want to slash their comms budgets, tell them what they should really do. You'll be doing them a favour.

Cheers, I'm craving for fried rice. Off I go. :-)