The Australian Chamber of Commerce released their quarterly ACCI Westpac Survey of Industry Trends, and in  a nutshell

“The US and Australian manufacturing cycles have a
historical tendency to move broadly in synch. A widely
divergent relative performance was apparent from mid-
2006 to mid-2007 as Australian conditions trended
higher while US conditions deteriorated markedly.

That gap narrowed somewhat during 2008 up until the latest
quarter, as US conditions stabilised while Australian
conditions deteriorated. The December quarter saw
conditions in both economies deteriorate markedly further,
both well into contractionary territory (sub-50), more so
for the US.”

Apart form the economic indicators of this, and the ongoing fear of employees to lose the job that pays the bills, how does it impact on the intangible assets of companies?

We know that big business is supportive of brand development. A recent article in The Age confirms, that tough times call for strong brands. People like to turn to things they know, will work. Sales experiments are curbed during these times.

During the recession that followed September 11, just 25 percent of all companies boosted their ad spending — and those that did saw their market share rise more than twice as fast as it typically rises during a normal economy, according to a 2001 Cahners Advertising research report. (quote: BNet)

Downturn in Australian advertising spending is felt in particular by mass media like Channel 10. Less advertising expenditure does not mean less consumer spend. As social networking and other niche media make new connections to buyers, it is harder for marketers to measure and monitor neatly the traditional way.

The knives are out between the B2B sales quarters and marketing. Blogs are buzzing about who should be made redundant first.

“Even in groups that are well-known money-wasters, like Marketing…”

On a macro level, this sort of banter is not constructive to the question whether businesses should be more tactical than strategic in their approach to making money. It is like saying, business people do not need legs, now that we have invented cars. It is fairly simple. Regardless of whether MBA’s in suits are involved or not, Marketers of all calibres should know what sells to buyers. And Sales People should sell what the company makes for its buyers.