SPEND YOUR WAY
OUT OF CRISIS PR and marketing experts say commit assets now for benefit later
By Julian Ryall
In a time of economic crisis—and there is little getting away from the fact that’s exactly where we find ourselves at the moment—a company’s spending is almost always on the chopping block. The feeling is typically that it’s best to hang on to your human assets and reduce outlays in lessessential areas—and marketing is often a target. For companies that rode out previous threats to their survival, such as the 2007 global economic crisis or the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011, the temptation might be to once again batten down the hatches to get through the coronavirus pandemic. But marketing experts, backed by plenty of compelling statistics, say com panies need to take the counterintuitive route and actually increase their advertising and marketing budgets. The bottom line, they say, is that out of sight is out of mind—and that equates to being off the shopping list.
DEBBIE HOWARD Chair of market research CarterJMRN President emeritus, ACCJ
34
THE ACCJ JOURNAL
n
OCTOBER 2020
HISTORIC HARDSHIP Debbie Howard, chair of market research agency CarterJMRN K.K. and a president emeritus of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), said the present situation is arguably worse than any similar crisis in living history, as it combines a public health emergency and a sharp eco nomic contraction—the former causing the latter by forcing businesses to curb activity and people to reduce consumption. Governments then must attempt to mitigate the damage through hugely expensive support measures—and all this is happening on a global scale. “When we were in the middle of the [2008] economic crisis, and then when the Tohoku earthquake hit in 2011, I thought things were bad,” she told The ACCJ Journal. “But this is much worse. It’s all of those things at the same time, and the duration is much longer.” Inevitably, the situation has impacted various sectors to wildly differing degrees, with companies in travel and hospitality among the hardest hit, along with some retailers. Kevin McAuliffe, president of consumer products com pany Newport Ltd., said many personal care, food, and car-
KEVIN McAULIFFE President of consumer products Newport
