Guerilla Marketing Through Timing

When the economy slows and business expenses are forced to reduction, it may seem that your advertising budget would be the easiest to cut. But cutting this will reduce or eliminate the very activities that will bring in new customers. Likewise, it is at this time that large companies start pulling their mass advertising in order to cut budgets - and advertising budgets are usually the first to go. This is the time when small businesses should pump up or at least maintain their advertising efforts while the large companies are losing audience. When high-dollar advertisers cut back on spending, advertising rates are forced to drop in order to attract small business. This window of opportunity gives small businesses a chance at advertising positions that may have previously been financially infeasible.

There are generally specific times of the year that large companies intentionally increase or decrease their advertising. The purpose is to reduce costs during slow periods of the year so that more money can be devoted to advertising budgets during more prosperous seasons. For instance, notice how department stores such as Target will saturate the marketing with advertising in August (for back to school promotions) and again before the holidays. This activity will increase advertising costs across the board during those seasons.

This is true for all industries although the seasons can be different. Being in the vacation and tourism industry our promotional seasons change not only by periods throughout the year, but also by destination. For example, summer is a peak vacation season for Orlando. But other destinations such as the Smoky Mountains or Park City peak in fall and winter.

Every industry has these time fluctuations and knowing them can give you a huge competitive advantage. The key is to use the slow periods to your advantage.