Drought-tolerant.

• Author: Beers, Heather

During arid economic times, do you advertise or not?

When the drought turns the corn stalks to kindling and the river to a trickle, should the farmer spend his last few coins on the traveling man's rain pills, or should he keep his coins under his mattress and hope for a downpour?

Is this an irrelevant riddle or a particularly apt question for marketing in today's market, which at times seems to be drifting closer and closer to a "dust-bowl" economy? With the stock market still staggering from dot-com devastation and signs of downturn leaving more empty storefronts, should Utah's businesses invest increasingly precious dollars in advertising or should they hold on to their pennies to save their bottom line?

"There are a lot of different philosophies (on whether to advertise during tough economic times), and I'm not sure there's a definitive answer, says Scott Rockwood, CEO for Salt Lake City-based FJCandN advertising. "While the first knee-jerk reaction would be to cut advertising because it seems like a controllable expense. I would caution that sometimes the best way to survive a downturn is to invest in something that will bring a return. Certainly, there is a reasonable amount of evidence that it can pay off in a recession as much or more so than in robust times."

That reasonable amount of evidence to support such a claim dates back at least as far as 1927, when the Harvard Business Review published a report by Roland S. Vaile, showing companies that advertised during the recession of 1923 gained the most in sales. Subsequent studies have added additional evidence, such as a 1980 Cahners Publishing/SPI study that points out, "During recessionary periods, these businesses (companies who spent media advertising dollars) tended to gain a greater share of market. The underlying reason is that competitors, especially smaller marginal ones, are less willing or able to defend against the aggressive firms."

For some Utah companies, the uncertain economic landscape hasn't dampened advertising spending. Utah's restaurants are maintaining advertising levels, and in some cases increasing them, according to Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association. "While our restaurateurs see a softening in the economy, so far it hasn't impacted the growing restaurant industry.

Restaurants are aware of the competition, and they want to keep their names in the forefront here," Sine says.

Zions Bank, based in Salt Lake City, is also advertising at...