Viewpoint
Making Most Out of Economic
Downturn
5 Weeks Marketing and Sales
Action Plan
November, 2008
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Financial crises should be considered cycles within business world, with
five key stages with different action priorities
No Crisis
Financial Crisis
Cycle & Priorities
Build Trust
Get Commitment Pre-Crisis
Post-Crisis Win-Back
Avoid Loss Beginning of Crisis
Steal from Competition
Current stages
of focus
Mid-Crisis
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Towards reaching crisis stages, companies need to adapt their
marketing and sales activities to turn downturn into an opportunity
Area Adaptation
Refine targets and strategies for achieving them under new conditions
Strategies
Revise proposition mix based on changing customer needs and demand
Propositions
Reallocate operational resources based on changing transactional demand
Operations
Cater for channel motivation and retention
Channels
Closely monitor profile changes and interact with customers
Customers
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We recommend a 5-weeks action plan to fine-tune marketing and sales
activities as well as channels in order to make most out of an economic
downturn
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
This is an aggressive plan since no time should be wasted in times
Revising Targets and Objectives of financial crisis. Companies should take a highly pragmatic
approach in these actions and dedicate enough resources.
Analyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in Downturn
Launching Retention Operations
Developing Retainer Promotions and Programs
Attacking Weak Spots
Aligning Product and Media Mix
Motivating and Reassuring Employees
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Revision of targets and objectives is necessary due to drastic changes in
market risks, opportunities demand and competitive landscape
Action Revising Targets and Objectives
Description Key Tasks
Revision of strategic objectives and key targets (e.g.
sales volume, customer retention) assessing and  Assessment of actualizations to date
forecasting impact of economic downturn
 Analysis of downturn impact on market
Objectives  Analysis of changing competitor practices
 Revision of SWOT under new conditions
 Realigning organization towards new goals under
new conditions
 Revision of strategic priorities and objectives
 Avoiding organizational frustration due to now
invalid targets during market distress  Revision of targets based on new facts
 Reallocation of targets across organization
 Resetting focus on business areas with more
opportunities during economic downturn
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For companies who do not have a good understanding of its customers,
it is time for taking actions, and for those with in-depth insights,
changing market conditions could make them obsolete
Action Analyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in Downturn
Description Key Tasks
Modeling of customer value, segments and churn Downturn Customer Valuation
risks which change due to economic downturn and  Definition of customer value
require new analysis
 Evaluation of value of all customers
 Value change analysis
Objectives Downturn Customer Behavior Analysis
 Definition of behavior important
 Understanding changing profile and preferences  Evaluation of behavior of all customers
of customers  Changes and migrations
 New segments and niches identification
 Adjusting customer analytics models which
became obsolete due to drastic changes in the Downturn Churn Risk Prediction
market  Analysis of new factors and churner profiles
 Development of predictive models
 Gaining ability to focus limited resources on the  Evaluation of churn risk of all customers
most valuable and high churn risk customers
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Retention and win-back operations are already critical for any business,
but with increasing churn risk, they become vital during an economic
downturn
Action Launching Retention Operations
Description Key Tasks
Developing and launching operations to retain
customers requesting or is expected to churn
 Re-active retention offer development
Objectives  Retention processes design
 Decreasing amount of customers lost during  Retention organization set-up
downturn with effective offers and operations
 Information needs definition for future win-back
 Sustaining relations with customers during
economic downturn, who can create further  Workaround systems development
value afterwards
 Preparing for future win-back, collecting the right
information from churners
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Tailored promotions and programs increase ability to retain customers
during downturn, serving their changing needs and expectations
Action Developing Retainer Promotions and Programs
Description Key Tasks
Designing and developing promotions and marketing
programs to retain high risk and valuable customers
 Assessment of churn factors and customer needs
 Definition of key guidelines for offers
Objectives
 Design of campaign offers for retention
 Decreasing risk of churn providing better value
for money during downturn  Design of long-term commitment programs
 Building long term customer commitment  Design of offers addressing financial distress
ensuring long-time revenue stream
 Development and targeted launch of offers
 Addressing challenges customers facing with
during downturn to serve changing needs and
increase loyalty
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Economic downturn creates challenges for all players in the market,
which create opportunities to attack competitors less prepared or
trusted
Action Attacking Weak Spots
Description Key Tasks
Developing propositions and communications in
order to acquire customers from competition by  Analysis of competitor weaknesses
leveraging their weaknesses
 Development of offensive crisis strategies
Objectives  Design of offensive value propositions
 Growing size of customer portfolio for immediate  Development and launch of propositions
and future customer value
 Identification of weaker competitor customers
 Increasing market share with targeted messages
and communications  Identification of customers lost to weaker earlier
 Decreasing power of competitors during  Targeted communications to identified customers
economic downturn to benefit during and
afterwards
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As demand shifts towards more affordable products, companies need to
realign their product investments while increasing efficiency of media
mix used for their promotion
Action Aligning Product and Media Mix
Description Key Tasks
Revisiting product portfolio across channels and Product Mix
media utilized to ensure alignment with changing  Prioritization of products for new market needs
customer needs and budgetary constraints
 Readjustment of channel inventory (if applicable)
 Realignment of product marketing for priorities
Objectives
 Minor revisions on products (if necessary)
 Creating better and faster response rates using  Quick new product launches (if necessary)
less media budget
Media mix
 Decreasing cost of inventory and increasing  Media investment and impact analysis
shelf-space effectiveness as well as return from
product investments  Reallocation of media budget based on insights
 Restructuring of media & communications plan
 Aligning product portfolio with the changing
 Refinement of marketing messages
market demand and customer needs
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Economic downturn has substantial impact on lives of employees as
well, with possible implications for their motivation, which can effect
quality of service if not handled effectively
Action Motivating and Reassuring Employees
Description Key Tasks
Communicating effectively with employees in order
to avoid possible fears and loss of motivation  Understanding of employee moral and needs
 Identification of target internal audience
Objectives  Definition of key messages to be communicated
 Preparation of internal communications plan
 Ensuring retention of high performing employees
during economic downturn
 Development of communications materials
 Minimizing risk of decreased service quality due
to demoralized customer facing employees  Definition of responsibilities for motivation
 Execution of communications activities
 Decreasing risk of negative word of mouth within
organization on unfounded grounds
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Companies need a special financial crisis management task force for
these adaptation activities in sales and marketing areas
Action Key Parties to be Involved
Revising Targets and Objectives Strategic Planning, Marketing, Sales
Analyzing Customer Value, Behavior and Risk in Downturn Business Intelligence, Marketing
Launching Retention and Win-Back Operations Marketing, Channels, IT
Developing Retainer Promotions and Programs Marketing
Attacking the Weaker Marketing, Sales
Aligning Product and Media Mix Marketing, Merchandising (if applicable)
Motivating and Reassuring Employees Human Resources, Channels
Forte can assist you in this adaptation process, allocating experts in each of these activities
and collaborating with your internal resources in execution.
Please contact info@forteconsultancy.com for more information on these activities and how
we can provide our support.
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Forte Consultancy Group is a fact-driven consulting company, with
consultants specializing in customer strategies and actions with
extensive experience in loyalty programs
Global Experience of Team
Turkey Office
UAE Office
Forte Consultancy Group provides its functional expertise to companies across
industries, including authorities in different industries as subject matter experts in
its projects.
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Forte can provide end to end solutions during adaptation, with fact-
based and executable designs, which aim balanced impact in both short
and long term
“We value short term accelerated benefits while
heading towards full impact results”
“We talk the language
“We create solutions
Balanced of analysis, we
to be implemented,
Impact measure success with
we engage for it”
numbers”
Design for Data
Execution Driven
Voice of the Market Voice of the Customer Voice of the Business Voice of the Employee
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