Written by:Scott Rakestraw
1/30/2008 11:34 AM

When Starbucks is advertising, you know things are tough. In good years, the average life of a CMO is two years but add recession, then you have pressure.  As I read through my Advertising Age today (January 28^th issue), I keep looking for the falling sky. Below are some of the glooming storylines.

1. The writers’ strike has made Johnson and Johnson skip last year’s TV upfront selling period.
2. How Banks can Boost Image in Chaotic Times
3. CMOs, Get Ready for a rocky ride
4. Strike driving $100M in ads from TV biz to big screen

In tough times, marketing is under a great deal of pressure to do more with less, making measurement and metrics king in 2008. Smart marketers will not spend money on unproven or non-measureable media, failure is not an option in a bad economy. To succeed, keep these in mind.

1. Test, Test, Test - do not rollout new media, offers or creative until you know it works.
2. Measure – if the marketing is not measurable, meaning  - did it lead to sales or an action that leads to a sale.
3. Be Creative – convince me I can’t live without it, even it means I have to skip my morning cup of Joe.
4. Buy Apple Stock – even when the mall is empty, the Apple store is packed. 
5. Overlay external economic indicators over your marketing spend and performance metrics at a geographical level (DMA, CBSA or Zip) to find hot markets, eliminate bad markets or identify over fished markets. If one of your targets is new movers, stay away from poor housing markets.

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