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‘Marketing budget should go up in challenging times’
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Posted on Jan 26 2006
The economic turmoil in the CNMI should not be reason enough for private companies and government agencies to cut their ad or marketing budget, according to a veteran advertising and sales consultant.
During the weekly regular meeting of the Saipan Rotary Club at the Hyatt Regency Saipan on Tuesday, Bruce Lloyd said that tough economic times “call for increasing the ad or marketing budget, rather than cutting it.”
For most companies, it’s always been tempting to “chop or prune their budget item when the bottom line is going down” but one should actually go the other way, he said, adding that his statement has already been proven several times already.
The media consultant also suggested that companies who hire salespeople should not resort to furloughs because he said there would always be products to be moved and there would never be a substitute for that face-to-face contact with prospective clients.
Lloyd said there is no American community like the CNMI with a comparable media structure. He said there is a cable TV company, four radio stations and two newspapers that provide countless opportunities to reach the CNMI public.
“As I review the local media day-by-day, I see any number of businesses cranking out the press releases and ‘contributed’ pictures—the most traditional way to raise awareness of their activities and concerns without being billed for the privilege,” he pointed out.
It’s the commercial media that pound home the companies’ message directly. Lloyd said that companies should bear in mind that “risk is basic in a business.”
