Why Advertising in a Bad Economy Is Good

Why Advertising in a Bad Economy Is GoodWhy Advertising in a Bad Economy Is GoodIn a recession, the first dollars that a company usually cuts come from the advertising budget. Thats a big mistake. Advertising in a recession is actually a smart geschftsleben move to grow your business, both now, and for the future. Its not the risk you may think it is. McGraw-Hill Research conducted a study of U.S. recessions from 1980-1985. Out of the 600 business-to-business companies analyzed, the ones who continued to advertise during the 1981-1982 recession hit a 256-percent growth by 1985 over their competitors that eliminated or decreased spending. American Business Press analyzed 143 companies during the economic downturn back in 1974 and 1975. Companies that advertised in those years saw the highest growth in ausverkauf and net income during the recession and the two years that followed. The numbers arent a fluke. They prove theres a reward for companies who are aggressive with their advertis ing efforts in a recession. Here are even more reasons why you need to advertise your business in a bad economy Your Competition Wont Advertise Most small businesses have a limited advertising budget. During a recession, its easy to make up some of those dollars by holding back on advertising. But all that really does is open up the marketplace for that companys most savvy competitors. The presence the business has spent ad dollars on to build up is now an open field for the competitors that are willing to advertise. Lets say you own an auto partes store. Consumers leise need your company, no matter what the economy. Cars still break down. They still need windshield wipers and people will even buy those tree air fresheners. By advertising when all other stores are pinching pennies, you can scoop up a ton of new business. You Can Tailor Your Message and Make More Sales Think of it this way during a booming economy, people are playing more fast and loose with their money, so t heyre not as discerning. While you may believe that is a good thing, it can hurt a lot of smaller businesses. Money is no object, so the big brands can scoop up premium advertising space and blast it at every conceivable target audience. But during a recession, consumers pull back hard on those spending reins and are much more careful about how they put their money to work. Thats when you can really take advantage. The big brands will reduce their spend, giving you not only a gunst der stunde to talk to people you would never usually talk to but to also tailor cost-saving messages just for them. You know that whats first and foremost on their minds is money, and saving it. Now, they can get a quality item for less, because theyre not paying for a bunch of advertising and marketing (Beats headphones are a prime example of this...mediocre product, huge ad, and product design costs). This is your chance to talk openly about costs, and how you can help. Once the recession is over, youl l have gained a whole new customer base that wont go back to the competition. You Can Create a Long-Term Position for Your Business Standing out in the marketplace is hard enough when you and your competition are battling it out in the ad world. As your competition cuts back on ad spending, your advertising can cut through that clutter. Consumers may not be spending as much but they are still spending. If youre not the company they think of when they do spend, your sales will decrease. While your competition is cutting back, you have the chance to be the company consumers spend with now while gaining their future business as you continue to advertise in good times and bad. You Can Establish Advertising Contacts This is the perfect time to establish a relationship with the person youll be doing business with at TV stations, radio stations, magazines, online, etc. An account executive can be your go-to contact to get your ads in prime placement, negotiate good deals on rates a nd even get extras thrown in for your ads. You can also use this new relationship to further grow your business. Talk with the AE about sponsorships, advertising trades, and partnering. You Will Get Better Deals on Advertising This is where you can use your new advertising contacts. Ad inventory still has to be sold. TV stations, radio stations, websites, outdoor vendors, and magazines still have budgets to make. Nows a good time to get deals on your ad space. You can get more exposure through more ad placement and even freebies added into the mix. If youre trying to get airtime on TV, for example, a station might also offer online advertising on its website as part of the deal. Or to be more accurate these days, buying a huge amount of space online could lead to additional impressions elsewhere, again thrown in as a special offer. You Can Speak Directly to Bargain Hunters Dont be afraid to address the bad economy in your advertising. Customers are looking for good deals. So me national advertisers are a prime example of this. Travelocity aired a simple commercial to announce its Silver Lining Sale. In the first three seconds, you see the words, We know times are tight. Wal-Mart continually runs effective ad campaigns in poor economic climates. The commercials dont say, Hey, come on out. Weve got electronics, clothes, sporting goods, prescriptions and more at a low cost. Instead, the ads focus on very specific items and how much youll save over a year by purchasing these items directly from Wal-Mart. In a bad economy, there are many opportunities to expose your business to new customers that arent always possible in a good economy. Every one of them can be explored to help you solidify your place in business and stand out from your competitors.

Dont forget to take out the trash!

Dont forget to take out the trashDont forget to take out the trashDanielle Correa is the Diversity Project Assistant here at Vault. She also endured one of the most painful internships of all-time while an underemployed undergrad, hoping to beef up her resume before graduation. When it welches all over after just three hellish weeks, she endured six months of unemployment (during which, we assume, a few more great storiesoccurred). So what would you have done? Save yourself the misery, or endure this weeks edition of Temporary Tales? Read on and decide for yourself, then let us know And as always, if youve got a tale of your own, be sure to send it to PinkSlippedVault.comAbout a month before graduation, it occurred to me that my resume could use a little boost. My fabulous life of bartending and waitressing didnt exactly scream Hire me to potential post-grad employers, so I decided (I still cant believe I did, but I did) to branch out in search of the perfect internship. No longer ab le to count on the $300 nightly direct deposit directly into my pocket, zing I knew that while padding my resume, I needed something that would keep my checking account in the black. One April afternoon in the Montclair State computer lab, I stumbled upon what I thought was just that a forwarded email from my department head advertising an internship entitled Creative Writer, which I thought was just perfect, as I wanted to write. Just how wrong I was, I wouldnt know until I had spent three weeks as the most miserable intern in the tri-state area. On my first day I arrived at 8 am sharp to discover that I was the first person there and the office door was locked. The office was situated on the second floor of a realtors office, and knowing that the company was tiny only 8 people, including me I figured I had no choice but to ask the realtors receptionist for a key. She kindly requested that I please bugger off and wait outside. No one had told her there was an intern arriving f or her first day that day (and whos going to give a key to the intern, honestly?). I was a little perturbed, but what could I do? I went outside as instructed and my interviewer arrived about 10 minutes later apologizing for being late on my first day. Sensing this might become a regular occurrence, I asked him about getting a key. I was met with something along the lines of, We dont give keys to interns. Strike oneOnce upstairs, I found my new desk waiting for me, miles from the other cubicles and very close to the door, suspiciously so, since I believed my job would involve working closely with the rest of the team. I was told that they were in the process of hiring a receptionist but hadnt found one yet. Can you guess who got to be the resident Pam Beesley in the meantime? Alright, so I had just become a Creative Writer slash Secretary. I guess this might have been okay if I had ever been given a single chance to write. Things really seemed to be working out so far.When it came time to meet the rest of my co-workers, they were welcoming at first, but for the remainder of my time with the company I heard the snickering and whispering by the water cooler. I saw them look at me and then turn away and laugh amongst themselves, which would have been uncomfortable enough before factoring in that I was the only woman working for this company. Strike twoFinally, the fun part meeting the CEO. Pardon my French when I say, what an arrogant, sexist $* Clearly I wouldnt have been so eager to take the internship if Personal slave to CEO were listed under the job requirements. When he needed something mailed, I licked the stamps, got into my beat up 1992 Honda Prelude and drove across town to the post office (his letters almost always had to be mailed internationally). I did this every day for three weeks, rain or shine. I made coffee. Of course, Mr. CEO liked his coffee stronger than everyone else, so I made two separate pots of coffee three times a day. Every day I o rdered his lunch and picked it up since the jerk was too cheap to pay for delivery. If he had a meeting, I ordered clients lunches as well, and was then forced to place plates, utensils, condiments the works in front of behauptung clients, as if I were some baboon Whenever anyone called the office, I had to get up and announce who was calling, why, and from what company rather than simply transfer Mr. CEOs calls directly. I wasnt allowed to email him messages or forward voicemails, either. I had to write them down, then go to his desk and announce the list to him twice a day. By the grace of the internship gods, I was afforded an hour lunch break my lone perk.Sadly, all of this was a cakewalk compared with my most miserable task. The company had no janitor or cleaning service, so after a long day of running errands, jumping through hoops like a circus ape and doing the opposite of the job I thought I was hired to do, I got to take out the trash. I was required to collect everyone s personal garbage and the large one from the kitchen, then lug them to the one nearby dumpster a block away. And you know Mr. CEO never forgot to poke his head over my desk at 455 as he was heading out the door and say, Dont forget to take out the trash.Its one thing to treat the intern like, well, garbage. However, Mr. CEO didnt even pretend to respect me. Hed berate me in front of the entire office, and never coached me on how he wanted things done, despite my repeated inquiries. I think you know where this is going Strike threeAfter three weeks, I finally put my foot down and quit. Stressing over some two-bit CEOs personal errands? Really not worth the $8.50 an hour. To recap, thats $300-a-night waitressing gig gone, and miserable (but paid) internship gone. In spite of it all, I was proud that I had stood up for myself, confident that I could command respect from my superiors in the future, and sure that I really had tried my best. I looked ahead and searched for my new enterpr ise. It awaited me somewhere.And if you think that was awful, stay tuned for the journey that follows this temporary talesix months of unemploymentPosted by Danielle Correa, Vault Diversity Project Asst.

Resume Tips for College Students and Recent Grads

Resume Tips for College Students and Recent GradsResume Tips for College Students and Recent GradsWhen you are a college student seeking an internship or a job your resume can look just like everyone elses and that can make your job search a challenge. How can you get your resume noticed when all the candidates are basically equal when it comes to their educational background? Its important, in this competitive job market, to have more than your education on your resume. A college degree in and of itself isnt enough. Every college student should find time, even though time can be hard to find, to do as many internships as possible, to volunteer, to work on college projects, participate in clubs and organizations on campus, and to participate in activities which will not only help your resume stand out from the crowd, but will provide you with the opportunity to explore options and career paths for the future. The next step is to make your resume shine. The time you spend on extra-cur ricular activities will be time well spent. Youll have more information to include on your resume than just your education. The key to success is to properly present your experience so it will impress your prospective employers and help you get invited for an interview. Heres a list of skills college students can include, listed by major. Helen Zucchini, Director, Career Connections at Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, share herbei tips for how to create a resume that will distinguish you from the competition Details Count- and Your Gut Is Usually Right Make sure the formatting is consistent and text is aligned. Ive seen resumes where the formatting was all over the place. Or fonts that just dont look right, colors that are off. Check grammar and spelling (the kind of stuff that spell check doesnt catch)- theyre vs. their- herd vs. heard - I see this all the time. Most of the time, you know it in your gut. So listen to your gut, and also run it b y friends and tell them they HAVE to be brutally honest with you, to look at it from the perspective of hiring you- not the perspective of going out for drinks with you later Maybe Youre Special, but Make Yourself Extra Special Despite what your friends and family say- youre not that special. Or maybe you are, but youre competing with a lot of other special people. Tough love? Absolutely. So when preparing a resume, highlight specific results you achieved. And make sure those are the results that matter to the partie whos going to be interviewing you. And show that you understand the job is about doing something for the company, not the company doing something for you. Your passionate interest in becoming an ad executive isnt enough to make you a great candidate for the job. Solve Problems and Set up Some Stories Employers want to hire people who can demonstrate they are problem solvers. Create your resume with specific scenarios that demonstrate how you solved a problem, wh ether its with internships or college projects. Dont just write what you did transform that into how you did it and show how the way you think can help the organization with which youre interviewing. Another tip setting up your resume like this will give you interesting, compelling things to talk about with the interviewer. Stories and projects are way more engaging than a list of duties. It will make you feel more comfortable, and it will make the interviewer more interested. The Critical Element of Resume-Writing Getting It Read You can have the best resume, but when its stacked with hundreds of others it needs to get noticed. In other words, your resume, no matter how good, wont do all the work on its own. You put the time in to make it great, now make sure you also make it seen. So network. Networking also takes work - but its much easier than fruchtwein people think. People are always surprised at how many friends and neighbors have great contacts, and how many of those con tacts are perfectly happy to chat with you. Also ask your career or alumni office, friends, parents, and professors to introduce you to people in your area of interest (marketing, banking, energy, etc.) and tell them you are astudent wanting to learn more about what they do, how they got into their industry. Offer to buy them a coffee - people love talking about themselves, and this is a great way to get in front of key decision makers while also learning about the industry or career.