Is it important to do marketing and communications during a recession?

Nokukhanya recently ran a workshop with young entrepreneurs who raised this question which raised very interesting debate and we hope that this may assist with the answer.

While marketing and advertising is very beneficial to the growth of a business it comes at quite a high cost, and usually is a cost that most business cant afford, and this really served as the crux of the debate. Nokukhanya obviously took a pro marketing approach whilst the financial colleagues tried to quantify and denounce the spend. While we tried our best we had to concede that the answer really lied in between. The reality of the South African market is that it relies heavy on large corporates to deliver product and no matter how hard you try our recessionary times may not effectively grow your business.

In true entrepreneurial fashion, Nokukhanya has decided to launch a cheaper marketing and communication package offered to the market which primarily is the setup and creation of free media over the internet using social networking and business listings, this effectively means you grow brand awareness and in order to maintain your business.