(The following is a presentation I made as part of the webinar: Marketing in an Economic Meltdown)

A crisis, according Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is “an emotionally significant event in a person’s life”. The crisis is producing fear of the unknown for consumers and their natural response is to reduce their spending.

Because marketing is about knowing what your prospects need, first focus on the emotions behind their decision-making to better connect what you’re offering with what they’re looking for.

As a brief background, psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote the paper “A theory of human motivation”, where he presented the following hierarchy of human needs. From the bottom, they are: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and finally self-actualization.

He claimed that you couldn’t focus on higher desires unless those underneath it were satisfied. For example, if you were starving it would be hard for you to focus on your self-esteem; you’d be mostly thinking about eating. People may be interested in the higher desires, but unless the lower ones are satisfied, they’re not going to act on them.

So what does this mean for your business? Your marketing message needs to be focused on (or aligned with) safety to resonate with your prospective clients in times of financial crisis.

So here are 5 ways to resonate “safety” to turn the crisis into a marketing opportunity for your business:

1) Needs vs. Wants

First, position your offering as a need, not a want. Needs are “gotta-haves” while wants are “nice-to-haves”. In times of crisis, people are more focused on needs not wants. If you’re not already in the business of selling needs, you’ll want to highlight your offerings as a need or in conjunction with one.

The following are some of the industries that are seen as needs especially during a financial crisis:

• Debt Consolidators
• Outplacement firms
• Accountants
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Healthcare Providers
• Insurance Brokers
• Lawyers

2) Small vs. Big Luxuries

Until recently, most consumers have been used to a general feeling of economic success. During a crisis, people still desire luxuries, although big-ticket purchases will be reduced.

So, modify your marketing message to focus on the “small luxury” feeling. For example:

• If you are Restaurant owner, instead of the esteem-benefit message “Too busy to cook?”, focus on a community-benefit message such as “Relax, rejuvenate, be with friends.”
• If you own a Travel agency, instead of the self-actualization-benefit message “See the world!”, focus on a discount-benefit message such as: “See your country as never before.”

Also in times of crisis: movie rentals, alcohol, tobacco, ice cream, and local community activities are more popular small luxuries. Where possible, fusion market with these industries or offer these luxuries as desirable premiums.

3) Reframe

Your marketing message needs to target safety instead of a desire higher on the pyramid. Improve your case studies and testimonials to increase confidence in your offering, for example:

• If you own a retail Jewelry store, instead of the love-benefit message “Show how much you care”, reframe to the financial-safety message “Diamonds are a lifetime investment”.
• For Seminar providers, instead of the self-actualization-benefit message “Learn something new”, reframe to the employment-safety message “Invest in your future”.
• For Consulting firms, instead of “Outsource your work to our experts”, reframe the message to be “Reduce your overhead without risk”

4) Divide & Conquer

In times of change, smaller organizations have the benefit of flexibility. Give your separate divisions autonomy to re-approach the market with an entrepreneurial spirit. According to Inc. Magazine’s case studies, the best time to launch a startup is during a recession. One of Method’s founders (a $100M home cleaning products company) says, “starting a business in a recession is like vacationing in the off-season”. GE, HP, Microsoft, and Disney all started during a recession.

To find gold in your industry, resegment your existing client list and retarget your message to them. Be willing to highlight specific products or services in new ways and risk breaking the status quo.

5) Measure

Finally, if you’re not measuring your marketing actions and results, start today. Don’t start a marketing effort without clear metrics and a plan to regularly re-evaluate the results based on impartial data.

In summary, a crisis focuses people’s attention on safety. Creatively show your prospects how your company helps them feel safer and your business will thrive.

Photo by RichardBH

Imagine sitting on a quiet lake in the early morning. You’ve been out on the same boat, on the same lake for a week, but you haven’t yet caught anything. Today you take out your favorite lure, attach it to your line, set the bait, and cast your line. You wait a little bit, feel a slight tug on the line. After a long struggle, you reel in your catch and see it’s a big bass. Why did that fish bite your hook today?

If you could, you could interview your fish. What attracted it to your lure? What was it doing before it noticed it? Why didn’t the other fish grab it first? Was it hungry for the lure, bored, or feeling something else?

Of course, you can’t interview a fish. But the same experience is what most businesses go through. Businesses create a lot of marketing, and wait for the phone to ring. When it does, they’ve begun the process of landing a new client.

When someone contacts you, do you know what made them reach out to you? Was it a recent review in your local newspaper? Did their friend recently use your services? Was it recommended on Yelp? Did your website come up on the first page for a Google search?

After someone contacts you (and especially after they’ve become your client), you must find out exactly why they made that first contact. Since there’s no easy way to find out why people don’t contact your business, you must attempt to hone in on those that do. If one person needs your services, then others will also.

In many cases, your clients won’t know exactly what triggered them into making contact. You might hear, “I’ve been thinking of contacting you for a while…”. Ask them specifically if they saw your Yellow Pages ad, newspaper review, website, pay-per-click ad, signage, or talked with someone who recommended you.

Collect this data and notice the trends. What do your “better” clients have in common? What sparked them into action? Then do more of what worked, and less of what didn’t.

When you need to fish for clients, use a marketing strategy that you know works for your business.

When I read this ad, I was confused what exactly was being offered. I didn’t notice the headline (“Turn up the heat.”) because it was graphically weak (compared to the image on the left). The first text I read was, “IF VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE, CONSIDER FRIEDMAN’S THE HABANERO.” But what does this mean?

Spending more time with the ad made is clearer that Friedman’s has staff who can help give you ideas for kitchen remodels. The creative idea was to somehow connect hot peppers (“habanero”) with a “hot” kitchen.

It appears that the basic marketing strategy for this business:

For local homeowners
who need a kitchen remodel
we have friendly advisors
to give you up-to-date information
unlike other big-box retailers
our offering makes it easy to get great results

Okay, so how to change the ad? Use the strong image of a fancy kitchen and change the ad’s copy to read, “Let us help design your dream kitchen” (focus on results/service).

Alternatively, integrate the kitchen’s “before shot”. The copy could read, “Go from old to Oh-My easily” or “Make Remodeling Your Kitchen A Dream”.

At a recent conference session I spoke at, an exhibitor came up to me after my presentation and asked a great question: “How can I start a sales conversation with people without being obnoxious?”.

While the conference had an exhibitor hall, the exhibitor was also planning to attend various sessions and wanted some ideas for how to “break the ice”.

My suggestion was to turn their badge into conversation piece. Most conference badges simply have the attendees name, and some brief biographical information (title, company, location). What I suggested was to take some actual colorful parts to their product, and attach them to their badge.

Since everyone else’s badge was “plain”, their badge stood out. And indeed, people started asking about the colorful things on their badge. The ice was broken, naturally.

Notice I didn’t suggest creating a billboard out of the badge (“Have Questions About XYZ? Talk To Me!”). That sort of message doesn’t create a dialog. It creates a response to the message itself (and a potential lost opportunity to dialog). Instead, my suggestion provides people a way to approach you with their curiosity piqued, and for you to begin a sales dialog. You can pre-qualify your potential client based on their needs, and not on your specific product or service.