The first thing that companies give up in a time of crisis is investment in the brand, which is the wrong thing to do, according to marketing professor Colin Egan of IEDC - Bled School of Management in Slovenia.
"Invest in brands because they are the only assets, alongside real estate, that can increase their value over time! " he advises.
Many companies, however, are now unable to find the necessary resources for any kind of investments; the shortage of cash and the abrupt consumption decline have cut marketing budgets of some local investors to almost zero, whilst multinationals continue their promotional offensive.
Can small companies without a marketing budget survive on the market?
"If they don't have money for investments in brands, small companies can resort to partnerships. Red Bull entered the UK market without having a marketing budget, only with a few sales people and an innovative approach: they persuaded Tesco (the biggest UK food retailer) to put their products on the shelves by supplying Red Bull for free. The products were a hit with the customers, so the Austrian producer to made its way onto a new market without promotional investments," is the example given by Egan.
The first thing that companies give up in a time of crisis is investment in the brand, which is the wrong thing to do, according to marketing professor Colin Egan of IEDC - Bled School of Management in Slovenia.
"Invest in brands because they are the only assets, alongside real estate, that can increase their value over time! " he advises.
Many companies, however, are now unable to find the necessary resources for any kind of investments; the shortage of cash and the abrupt consumption decline have cut marketing budgets of some local investors to almost zero, whilst multinationals continue their promotional offensive.
Can small compani
