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Recently, economies not just in the United States, but all around the world have experienced downturns and uncertain times. Whether you operate a retail location, or sell a specific branded product, you likely are facing questions as to how you may adjust your marketing strategies. You may be debating reduction in the overall marketing budget versus increased marketing initiatives in order to stimulate new business.

In times like these, it is my opinion that you need to focus on increasing and adjusting your marketing efforts-making sure to evaluate and eliminate those that are not successful.

The reason for the increase in marketing is simple. Consumers are tighter than ever with their disposable income. Marketing needs to demonstrate to consumers the value your store/brand can add to their lives and your Unique Selling Proposition(s) (USP). Think of consumers as selfish people. They only want to know "what's in it for me?" So your job, through marketing, is to answer that question. By demonstrating the features, attributes, and benefits your store/brand offers over the competition, you can effectively communicate to consumers why they need to spend at your location.

Now is a good time to invest in increased marketing research. You'll need to understand the competition and your marketplace better than ever. Devote the time, funds, and energy to segmenting and targeting your key demographics. Learn all you can about who your market is, what they do, what media the use, and what drives them.

Good knowledge of the target audience and the marketplace will help you to craft well-focused advertising and marketing plans. Perhaps in strong economic times having a billboard for your store on a major thruway seems like a good investment. But then let's say research shows the majority of your target audience takes the subway and shuns driving. Suddenly the return on investment (ROI) for that billboard takes a hard nosedive-it may even be a loss to your business!

That is why I emphasize again that it is important to spend the time and money necessary to evaluate all of your marketing efforts and to trim those that are not performing up to par.

Trimming marketing efforts that are not good ROIs will allow you to focus your marketing dollars toward productive initiatives. Going back to the previous billboard example, if you pull the billboard advertising, you can refocus those funds toward buying an ad on the subway. While oversimplified, I believe this demonstrates the nature

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