The curse and the opportunity of living in interesting times.

• Author: Hall, Robert
• Position: Viewpoint essay

May you live in interesting times. May you come to the attention of those in authority. May you find what you are looking for. According to Chinese legend, three ancient curses of increasing severity.

Oh, the curse of living in interesting times. Business in general is challenging these days and the questions about marketing strategies and budgets are particularly tricky. In the banking industry, a number of organizations have gotten adverse publicity for spending marketing dollars on high-profile ads, naming rights for sports stadiums, and junkets for their high-value customers. At a time when taxpayer bailouts combined with executive bonuses on Wall Street have created a lethal mix, marketing directors inherit the second curse: They are coming to the attention of those in authority or, at least, in a position to criticize.

In retrospect, some suffer the consequences of the most severe curse. It turns out that finding what they were looking for--like strong mortgage growth, innovative products with high margins, and mergers that vastly increased their size--was not all it was cracked up to be. Yet we can all probably look back at our plans and budgets (created in the last half of 2008) for 2009 and question the strategic assumptions. As we near the mid-year mark of 2009 and attempt to determine how to proceed in the second half of this year and to plan for 2010, it is useful to ask again: How has the changing landscape altered what we are looking to accomplish? Should we be looking to lower marketing cost, gain market share, take advantage of weakened competitors, avoid competitive encroachment or something else? It is instructive to look at what others are doing.

According to Nielsen, media ad spending fell 2.6 percent in 2008 and most estimate that it will fall in the 5- to 8-percent range in 2009--an historic decline not seen in decades. Many of the larger ad firms have cut headcount 10 percent. It certainly appears to be a time when marketing departments will be required to do more with less--some may even settle to do less with less. These moves seem to reflect a marketplace that projects less revenue in the near term, the need for lowering cost and the likelihood of less business and consumer potential.

Not everyone sees it this way. There are organizations that see this downturn as a strategic opportunity, given their unique circumstances, and they are moving strategically to exploit the opportunity. While Starbucks and Target are...