The Recession Is On - - Now Marketers Need to Focus on What Comes after the Recession

In this new year of 2009 marketers can get the jump on their competitors, especially those who have their head in the sand and are waiting for the recession to pass.  With business in a funk, now is the perfect time for marketers to get proactive by planning for the future.  They must lay a foundation for growth once the current recession lifts.  The best return on their investment in a prosperous future will come by investing in consumer insights.  Marketers need to focus on seeing 'over the horizon' to understand their current and future customers and how their shopping behavior will change once the recession is over," Danziger says.

She explains that a majority of senior marketing executives who are members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group are doing just that.  A new survey found that while these executives widely expect budget cuts this year, nearly three-fourths will continue to invest in research and development as well as innovation initiatives to plan for the success of their post-recession businesses.

Luxury Tracking measures aspirational affluent consumer purchases and predicts their future behavior -- Every three months Unity Marketing surveys 1,000-1,200 affluent consumers (average income of only $200,000+) about their luxury purchases -- what they buy, how much they spend on luxury, where they shop, and which brands they purchase.  This study also takes a forward view of the luxury market, helping marketers predict the trajectory of their consumer market through the Luxury Consumption Index (LCI), a measure of consumer confidence among affluents.  The LCI combined with the purchase data gives marketers a heads up on the upcoming quarter's spending trends.