Of Holidays and Economic Recessions

Remember, Remember the 15^th of September

This was the day that the Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the same day that Merrill Lynch showed the first signs of going kaput, and AIG finally cannot find lenders that are willing to save them.

Also, on September of this year occurred the highest sales decline of 1.2 percent. According to the Commerce Department, it was the worst decline since August 2005's 1.4 percent.

As the worst Christmas recession of the decade is about to happen, many if not all businesses are threatened by the biggest holiday production downturn.

To counter these diminutions, one must take advantage of the very thing that concerns everybody – price. In times of crisis, people tend to look for alternatives that will guarantee that their budgets will reach New Year's eve. And we all know that -

In times of Bankruptcy, Frugality is the Best Policy

This is the mantra of everyone now that we are in the midst of economic depression.

Being frugal is not a bad thing but not for entrepreneurs. Less demand tends to attract deflation. In this time of the year where people buy voraciously to celebrate the holidays, frugality is the most unfavorable thing for businesses.

But we can reverse the effect of frugal holiday into something very profitable. We just have to know the appropriate marketing strategies to use. And we can start by -

Re-understanding Your Niche

Re-understanding your niche is as important as knowing them. You then have to go back to the basics. You have to take note of the demographics, psychographics, proximity, et al. And you have to answer this question again - why do your consumers buy your products and/or avail of your services?

Because of three reasons:

Dealing with the horror of Subprime Mortgages, your consumers would now let go of the last reason and go on battling with the first and the second. How then could you convince them to still support your products and/or services?

It's about time that you learn the word “compensate.”

If they can't afford a slice of a cake then portion them that's smaller than the usual. That's compensate. Those who would buy more before September would only buy enough (or even less than enough) on December. Everybody is in the time where being stingy is the way to survive. People that spends so voraciously before tend to cut coupons nowadays to save a little and to be able to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Offer products and services for the lowest cost. And -

Try a Different Marketing Strategy

“I know what you're going through and we're in this together”

Everybody needs someone to cling on a holiday during financial crisis. Think like the advertising agencies. They put their feet in their audiences' shoes. They try to reach their thoughts and feelings. And when they finally understand what they're going through, they would see the Achilles heel vividly and will strike that with a fascinatingly brilliant advertisement that will surely captivate them in the time of being thrifty.

Give huge discounts, bombard them with promos, sale of the day, sale of the week, buy one take two and other gimmicks. And finally, make sure that you shoot the message to them – you are doing this because you completely understand what they're going through and you want to help them, and you are helping them by offering them your products and/or services. Isn't that cute?

But sometimes, we don't have to look too far to see the best thing to do this holiday, we can always play safe and use the marketing strategy that's -

For Free

This is the most orthodox of all orthodox holiday strategies. Most people would prefer to buy the cereal that offers “30% more” or gives away a cereal bowl for free as a Christmas gift than their usual brand that doesn't have anything for them on the Yuletide Season.

Another effective way is to have something for the kids. If you may not know, kids are the best dealers you can get today. Give them early Christmas gifts such as free toys or cards if they buy something in your line of products and they will guarantee that you would sell this holiday. Believe me, they surely know how to get their parents to buy things that are not on the grocery list.

Allowing your consumers to get more for the same cost as they do on regular days will make them take advantage of the promo and avail more than their usual purchase. Always remember that every December -

It's the Perfect Time to Get Rid of the Box

Let me bequeath a brilliant idea. In the Great Depression circa 1933 where all businesses are going down, Procter and Gamble, gambled and tried something that's never been done before – they made use of the then new medium, radio to advertise their laundry soap, Oxydol. But that's not all. The fascinating idea is to produce a short drama to be aired in the radio. The drama sub-consciously tackled the products of Procter and Gamble and had commercial breaks about Oxydol. And that people was the birth of the very first Soap Opera. And the rest is history.

And as they say, history repeats itself.

Now that the great depression is being repeated, entrepreneurs should try different approaches such as minimizing production costs and cutting the marketing budget. Just be sure that by doing so, it will not compromise the quality of the products and services. How to do this? Make use of the newest and maybe the most powerful medium of all – Internet. Instead of paying the high prices of Advertising and Marketing firms to publicize your products, why not try to hire Search Engine Optimizers and Link Builders instead?

Unlike what Procter and Gamble did, optimizing search engines are proven to increase profit for a lot lesser cost than what you have to give advertising agencies.

Try to Think Differently: Offshoring

Opportunities to counter recessions on holiday seasons are endless. You just have to think differently. If you foresee that your current strategies will not click during holidays, maybe you could try to tweak and innovate them.

A perfect example is to venture on other small home-based businesses that will guarantee you extra income to compensate what you will lose this coming Christmas.

Why not try being a middle man for customized Christmas cards, gift wrappers, and/or Christmas posters for different establishments? Give them an offer they can't refuse - the lowest cost for their Christmas expenditures with the highest quality they could get nowadays. This is just one of the plenty dazzling ideas to profit this Christmas.

You don't have to let go of a huge capital to do so. You just have to be clever enough, maximize your resources, and be open to new trends in the business world such as outsourcing and offshoring.

There are affordable offshoring firms out there who's willing to do all the job for you while you're just at home enjoying the holidays with your family.

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