Recession Strategies Part 1

"Experts predict that only 25% of retailers will have an 'above average' holiday season."

--J.D. Associates

Over the next several months I want to highlight particular strategies some high-tech companies are taking to survive (and sometimes thrive) in tough economic times. These cases will be from my own clients in addition to others I’ve identified as especially creative or provocative. Hopefully, this little database of insights will prove useful to those companies looking for an option besides just hunkering down.

Strategy #1 might be called the “80/20” strategy. It’s based on the premise that in every adverse situation there are almost always a few who do very well -- in part because it is an adverse situation. Absent the adversity, doing well would not be “as easy” for them. Examples of that 80/20 strategy in action are all around us. For marketers, the key is to convey convincingly and efficiently how the negative conditions themselves are an opportunity for a potentially very positive outcome.

My client, J.D. Associates, is a provider of point-of-sale and business management technology to retailers. It’s no secret their customers -- retailers -- now face an amazingly bleak Holiday shopping season. In fact, only 25% of retailers are expected to do well this year –- on the surface, not a very appealing story on which to base a campaign. Yet, see how we pulled it off with something as simple and efficient as a postcard. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)