The crippling effect of the global inflation which has thrown the world into an unexpected era of rising prices for food, energy, commodities, goods, and services, has also left the marketing industry in a dilemma.
From eroding the purchasing power of consumers, to decrease in sales, decrease in purchase capacity and demand of some high-end products, increase in operational costs, decreasing ad budgets, publishers, advertisers, and marketers are now faced with a new challenge “how to retain existing consumers”
As inflation grows, consumers are expected to spend less on discretionary items, change their perceptions on value, and embrace conscious consumerism. On the other hand, publishers expect to see advertisers cutting down their ad/marketing budgets and reassessing their business models.
ADMARP President, Oti Ukubeyinje shares: “Big advertising companies are already reporting that ad spend is dropping, especially on digital. Most companies are also expecting to see a big drop in revenues. There is also a shift in consumer behavior, as consumers are moving towards necessities and short term purchases. So it will be about retention of existing customers, however, companies that are value driven, that are focusing on low value and low cost products, will be the first ones to acquire new sets of customers, because that is the state of mind of customers in the recession, and inflation market.”
