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When the going gets tough, innovation suffers

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Feb 4 2009

The popular saying that necessity is the mother of innovation, gave me one source of optimism that the current times might actually engender some innovation in how marketers approach their customers and their markets. Alas, so far, I have not found that to be the case, at least among large companies.

At the beginning of every year, I make it a point to visit with our primary clients who tend to be large companies. This year, these visits were particularly important given the steep downturn in the economy as well as the recent acquisition of Quaero by CSG Systems.

Many of our clients are facing huge budget cuts, so I expected them to be looking for innovative (read less expensive) ways to reach their customers. What I have found, instead, is senior managers who seem shell shocked, reducing their staff (as they have often been mandated to do by their bosses) and unwilling to risk trying anything that is new, even if it holds the promise of delivering better ROI. They would rather cut entire programs and conserve their budgets. This is particularly true of clients who spend a great deal on outbound direct marketing. It makes sense for them to move some of this in to smarter inbound marketing or trigger based programs. However, if these are new to an organization they require some trial and error to get them right and these managers are too scared of the "error" part of that approach.

So my initial optimism about the potential positive side of the downturn is being tempered by the realization that for most managers, conserving their jobs is priority #1. Efficiency and effectiveness of marketing programs? That can wait until sunnier days are here again. Or their successors get to it.

Are you finding this to be the case? Let me know if you agree or disagree with this observation.

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