So how do brands and businesses brace themselves for the recession in an era of financial uncertainty? There, we said it, the ‘R’ word. Recession. Just when life felt like it was getting back to normal. We fall into a freezing cold lake… The recession. After the past two years of keeping our heads just above the water with the pandemic, Brexit, Boris, a war and now we’ve been hit by a tidal wave of rising energy prices, elevated inflation, rising interest rates and global economic weakness and don’t get me started on the revolving door of politicians. What should become a priority?
Here at Notepad, we want to reassure you that investing in your brand will sustain your business long-term. Many businesses’ first response during financial uncertainty is to make cuts to the marketing budget. But we want you to take a minute and think hard before making savings in this area. Your brand could risk long-term brand growth and financial business decline.
So here are our top tips and truths to help your brand not only survive but succeed:
Don’t cut marketing and brand-building spend
After the last recession, brands that cut costs took 5 years to recover and brands that did invest recovered 9 times quicker. A lot of businesses have seen recessions and either survived them or sunk in the midst of them. And for some businesses, this is the first recession they’ll be facing. So if you were thinking of cutting your costs… Don’t!
Be focused on business objectives
Recessions bring fresh ground. This is a time to try new things, focus on what you want to achieve and move the goalpost. We believe that brands should pop up with new and exciting releases, and really harness the power of the recession. A great example of this was when M&S harnessed the 2008 financial crash with the launch of “dining in for £10 deals”. They brought the taste and luxury of dining out into people’s homes at an affordable price. Very clever thinking when purse strings were tight.
Be innovative and creative
There’s a real opportunity for elevation, in these times of hardship. Brands shouldn’t stay stagnant, we need to push our creativity. And all your brand marketing channels are a great place to start. A recent study showed a strong case for a combined multichannel approach to drive campaign effectiveness – combining offline and online channels are 45% more efficient than offline alone and more efficient than online alone. The more channel combinations, the stronger the return on the initial investment.
Listen to your customers
The recession will have a huge effect on everyone. Your customers, their pain points and their needs, are going to change. This is your opportunity to listen, understand, start a dialogue and respond to their needs. Align your brand with your customer’s behaviours and opinions to steer the direction of your marketing and brand campaigns. From a business perspective, there will be many brands that have experienced huge disruption, and smart marketers will marry the lessons from this with trends and behaviours that are likely to impact longer-term to build resilience for the future.
Build customer experience
Cutting marketing spend and not communicating with your customers and wider audiences will have a negative impact on customers’ experience of your brand. The recession will cause some losses, which often can’t be solved by quick fixes and short-term activities such as promotions.
Brands should focus on providing value, which comes in many forms for different industries. It could be creating unique customer experiences – a balanced value mix that must be continuously communicated to both existing and potential new customers.
Be mindful and malleable
The ability to innovate and pivot in this uncertain time is key. We believe that brands should focus on the bigger picture from within, looking at your brand’s positioning and target audience. Being malleable with the ever-changing world around us. Brands must adapt to trends and the demands of the current world. When it comes to your brand’s core vision and mission we can push and reach further.
Be authentic and trustworthy:
Keep your promise. It’s important to make the value you’re providing clear from the beginning. Being an inclusive brand can ensure that your consumers feel connected. Keep it simple, and don’t overpromise.
As a branding agency, we know better than most that brand building is at its most crucial point now, more than ever. And the way we build brands is changing, as we re-focus brand’s to be inclusive of customer experience.
Our key takeaway is that brands mustn’t pull back, in times of uncertainty. We’ve seen companies that have introduced fresh marketing campaigns and adopted new brand-building strategies who have achieved huge growth. They see stronger ROI and continue to build their brand even in economic downturns. So are you ready to become a brand leader?
Want to learn more about marketing your brand in a recession? You can watch our live talk here.
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