Just today, for instance, the US Commerce Department announced that April retail sales were down by 20% vs. the same month last year. This is sure to take an enormous bite out of the $100.9 billion in annual consumer spending Boston area business has been expecting in 2020.
“April was the cruelest month,” Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, told the Wall Street Journal. "Retail spending likely bottomed out in the first week of May with spending picking up due to Mother’s Day and gradual state reopenings.
“It’s going to be less worse with each month,” said Mr. Johnson, “as people slowly come out of the foxhole and enter the mainstream of American consumerism.”
The ability of a Boston small business to survive past the lockdowns will depend on the steps it takes now.
WARC, a company that collaborates with more than 50 respected marketing organizations, including the Advertising Research Foundation and the Association of National Advertisers, has identified ten tactics that businesses should implement immediately. The #2 step on this list: Keep advertising if you can.
WARC has also found an abundant body of research published over a century, which suggests that significantly reducing advertising expenditures during a recession can have negative outcomes.
"Various studies show that cutting too hard has long-term impact in terms of sales, market share, growth, and return on investment," says WARC. "Companies that maintain investment recover more quickly."
WARC points to five key lessons that business owners can learn from previous recessions:
Boston small businesses that have the financial resources to invest in advertising during the recession should consider the advice of Peter Field, a marketing consultant and WARC contributor:
Click here to see the complete WARC Guide: Marketing in the COVID-19 Recession.