Time to warm up to the cooling global economy

While going dark is most certainly not on the cards, we are likely going to have to switch a bit from the activities of the past months. As we came out of the pandemic upping our digital game, it seemed only natural to continue down the path with innovations across Web3.0, metaverse, NFTs and the like.

The world had also unmasked, so we marketers headed out on a post-lockdown in-person events rebound - orchestrating large events with pomp and glitz across fancy locations, plush conference venues and hotels around the world. After all, our customers seemed just as eager to compensate for months of lost face-to-face interactions.

What seemed right just yesterday, however, may not be all that well-timed today. Pouring money into experiments, still mostly in the hype cycle, where ROI is some distance away or on ostentatious marketing-nice-to-haves are best shelved for a few quarters down the road. Now’s the time to pull out the playbook for success in a world of slower growth, cost inflation, and shrinking budgets. And here’s what it might look like for many of us.

Leaning in: leaning towards growth.

Growth will be the overriding C-suite priority and likely hard to reach. Well-hedged marketing bets are a must-have now. These need to be hand-picked strategic programs that don’t just strengthen the leads pipeline in the near-term but also amplify positive perception and set the brand up with a head start for when the markets revive. A structured approach tempered with astute creativity will serve to nudge both internal systems and clients to respond from the slowdown-induced inertia.

Creative marketing – not just creative messaging, but creative media-planning and program execution - delivers the most effective outcomes. So many examples come to mind from the time of the pandemic when marketers continued to focus on growth despite market uncertainties. Microsoft’s multi-year, multi-million-dollar partnership with NBA in the Spring of 2020, with its multichannel marketing, stands out for me. Around the same time, we too, launched Infosys Cobalt, our strategic cloud solutions suite, and backed it with our ‘cloud chaos to clarity’ campaign in partnership with MIT Technology Review.

Here’s another important to-do. Given the potential risk marketing budgets now face. It may be a great idea to make sure that you have the right metrics and language to explain to the business that you are taking on the goal that matters most to them - growth. The challenge is to get out of the marketing comfort zone of familiar metrics that few others understand and to speak the language that makes sense to a broader executive audience. For example, an attempt to convince the C-suite about the value of digital impressions will almost certainly prove futile. However, if we can find a way to elevate the metrics attribution to the top and bottom line, we can better demonstrate the value of our efforts.

Tech and talent: topping them up

Getting the most bang for the marketing dollar means having a keen sense of what’s working (and what’s not). That, in turn, means having sufficiently granular data and sophisticated algorithms that can help us understand customer behaviour in real-time. This intelligence, which may lay across disparate systems in the enterprise, must be orchestrated through synergies created by a strong digital foundation. It’s a great time to make that investment or build on systems that are already in place.

Yet, that’s only half the picture. We need more digitally savvy, analytical talent to derive insights from the data and creative storytellers to respond with matching messaging output. Marketing teams with foresight already realize this is a do-or-die situation and are taking a multi-pronged approach to strengthen talent. More meaningful assignments, better opportunities for career advancement and training in skills that are hard to find are all in the mix. Where possible, teams are also choosing to relax requirements for specific educational qualifications and relevant experience to hire people with great ‘learnability’ from other industries and with adjacent skills so they have the arsenal to better weather the storms ahead.

Staying the course: staying true

History has taught us this time and again; If we think back to any period of economic shock – from downturns past to the more recent pandemic years - brand behaviour and executives’ actions, both good and not-so-great, are imprinted in public perception for years long after the crisis has passed. Decisions made during testing times shape a brand’s identity and tell its story even when the test itself is forgotten. The real challenge for any ambitious brand, at any time, is to nurture a community of trusting advocates. And trust, luckily, is recession-proof.

Staying true to the brand’s stated purpose — regardless of the time or situation — is the strongest evidence of everything the brand claims to be far beyond any rational argument that it can make. Now is as good a time as any other to shape a compelling narrative around living the brand’s purpose that employee - and client advocates can amplify. And speaking of being purposeful, marketers who shape a strengthened ESG vision now and articulate its value can sharply differentiate the brands in their charge. After all, even in a slowing economy, perhaps especially in a slowing economy, strong ESG investments can be a great way to build business resilience too.

As a parting thought, this too shall pass. At some point, the inflation will be reined in, spending will pick up, and growth will be back along with our confidence. Keep the marketing engine humming because you don’t want to be struggling to restart cooled-off machinery when the economy is up and your competition is already running. No one can afford that.

Sumit Virmani is the global chief marketing officer of Infosys.