Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Esther
We're back with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Welcome, guys. Today we're talking about why pizza was more popular than burgers. Cryptic.
Melanie
It was rather, wasn't it? And this was something that was actually wonderfully ably assisted by the Two Lauras. Thank you so much for raising this topic up a few weeks ago. So the Two Lauras mentioned that a lot of people are dropping the ball right now, in their opinion, and they're kind of cutting off their marketing to the detriment.
Esther
They're cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Melanie
Pretty much. And I've got to agree with them, otherwise we wouldn't be here today. And they gave us a case study. So there is some evidence to back up this opinion.
Esther
Well, I mean, before we get into the case study, people have a genuine fear. Obviously, right now we're going through a recession. Whether you feel we're at the start of it, the middle of it, near the end.
Melanie
They haven't even called it a recession yet.
Esther
Cost of living crisis. Prices are going up. Wages are not going up. Everything is skyrocketing. Well, I haven't used the car in months, but that's another story. But, I mean, everything costs more. So you'd sort of start feeling that it's time to cut back on the non-essentials. And people might consider their marketing budget to be non-essential. I mean, they have clients. They have people buying from them. They have customers that they work with. So why bother with ads and marketing spend?
Melanie
To put it bluntly, there is only so much value in where you currently stand as your brand or your business. But if you don't invest in your business development on an ongoing basis, even through the tough times especially, there's nothing to fall back on.
Esther
Yeah, and we saw this during the pandemic, too, when people said, "sure, I'll just go into hibernation for a couple of months and it will be fine". And they ended up not coming out of it because they didn't (hate this word) pivot. Right. So case study.
Melanie
Okay, well, the case study that was given to us and I love the fact that they back up this opinion with actual evidence is they were referring to the McDonald's and Pizza Hut marketing strategies over the last recession. And so this is back in the 1990s, and McDonald's had reduced its marketing spend quite considerably. However, Pizza Hut, in their wisdom, obvious wisdom, saw an opportunity and increased their marketing, which for them, by far, was much better decision. And over this period, Pizza Hut's popularity in sales rose by 61%. And McDonald's, which I think personally is actually probably a slightly bigger brand, certainly here in Ireland, and in the UK, dropped by a whopping 28%.
Esther
That's mental. If you think about that in terms of the price of I was going to say Happy Meal, but they're the cheaper ones. The price of a meal at McDonald's can be up to £10, €10, $10, whatever it is you're spending, to think that instead of 100 people buying from you, you're getting 72. Think about it like that. Don't just think percentage is whatever. 72 people were buying from you rather than 100 people.
Melanie
Yeah. And that's just not reasonable. You've got overhead, you've got the cost of living prices to put up with. And so it's really imperative that you don't stop your business development. Now, there are some things that you can possibly shop around and look at. I know for a fact that, like my house insurance, for instance. We just had our house insurance billing and it's gone up 96%. We haven't claimed.
Esther
That's ridiculous
Melanie
So we are going to shop around. So being more clever is actually more important than cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Esther
But in terms of shopping around for things, you have to be sure that you will get the same level of service.
Melanie
Or as close as you can.
Esther
Or as close as you can. I mean, we're not saying drop your social media team and go and find an outsourced team in a different country. They might not be up to the same standards, up to scratch, up to the job.
Melanie
And it takes time doesn't it.
Esther
And it does the time that you will have to invest in teaching a new member of staff. You think you're saving money, you're really not. Plus it's always harder to gain a new customer than it is to retain a customer you already have. So if you are marketing to those people and sending out your emails, because not all marketing has to be paid for
Melanie
No. It has to be a good mattering of everything, doesn't it? Yeah.
Esther
So if you're still sending out emails to your clients that you have, reminding them of the services that you offer, they will also look at you and go, oh, well, if I didn't know that she did that service as well, and I thought about buying it from somebody else, but I already know Melanie. I've already worked with Melanie, I've already worked with Esther, then it's easier for them to bring you another service or another aspect of their business than it is for them to go and find somebody else. You think about VAs. You would rather stick with the same VA and have, you know, if they're able to do two or three more things for you, rather than having to go and look for two or three more VAs.
Melanie
It's a case of understanding what's available to you already. I mean, Esther has explained in the past that she's been known for one thing and one thing only, let's say, and now it surprises, and it's happened to me as well, and it surprises and baffles people that we do other stuff as well. So if it's happening to us, then it must be happening to other businesses as well. So maybe look at their websites, approach them directly, see if they have a relationship with somebody who can help you.
Esther
Yeah, because that's the other thing. We always like to recommend other people. So it's always better that better the devil you know than the devil you don't as well. But at the end of the day. If you are coming back. If you're pinching pennies and I'm sure there's another proverb in there somewhere. But you're really not doing yourself a service. If you are cutting back and even cutting back time from your marketing, from your social media, from being on your platforms, from being available to message your clients and be available for them, they're going to go look for somebody else as well. Because what people want right now is reassurance. And if they can't get it from you because you're too busy, because you fired two or three of your helpers or your staff or your employees or your VAs to save money, you're not going to have the time that you need to continue on. Now is the time to invest in your company, is the time to really fasten down the hatches in that you're not going to be wanting to try to expand right now. Some businesses will be able to, but you want to at least be able to retain what you have and strengthen that. Okay. We don't want to see anybody going out of business because of this. It is going to be a rough road. Things are going to go up in price. It could be unrelated to your business, your house insurance, your mortgage, you know things happen. It just happens.
Melanie
It does. And inventory, if you have a small staff or maybe friends or partner, inventory everybody's skills and you may find that somebody within your close circle of friends or close circle may be able to support you even temporarily, just to see you through this harder time making snap decisions about marketing budgets or staff or human resources of any type. Okay resolves short term issues, but it really hinders long term goals.
Esther
Yeah. And at the end of the day, if you are selling courses and selling things that people might feel is a luxury, people still need to upskill and they still need to learn and they still need to, you know, we saw from our friend Matt, I saw a post from Matt Hughes the other day that he has opened a group and is doing group training and things. And somebody had emailed him literally on the Monday saying things are getting hard. I'm looking for ways to cut back. Yes, your course is only so much per month. It's less than we're going to say, like it's about eight cups of coffee a month. It's an unnecessary expense. I'm going to cut that one out. They got a new client on the Wednesday and emailed them back going, you know what, it's working. Your course is working, your group is working. I am in, I am fully in because I'm getting more value by spending the equivalent of eight cups of coffee a month with you than I would be trying to do my own.
Melanie
And, you know, it's working out what you've got going for you today. It's not always down to money either. It's down to your community, your tribe. I remember that post, it was also mentioning just how much support they felt they were getting within that tribe and community as well. So, yeah, we appreciate we're having the same problems we are and this isn't the time to cut back. The other thing is that, okay, yes, there is a crisis but it's not affecting everybody in the same way. Some people do have the money.
Esther
Oh, yeah.
Melanie
So you don't have to slash all your prices. But you know what I mean, all the way through Covid bless them, there were businesses closing left, right and centre, but there were other businesses who were doing really, really well. Thank you very much. And people are still going to be doing well today, so you don't have to slash your prices either. You may have a smaller audience, but they're still there. Yeah.
Esther
And they might have been the audience that was always going to buy from you at the end of the day. You can't expect everyone to buy from you, but if you do have a specific price point, do not lower it because nothing else is coming down.
Melanie
No, absolutely. In fact, it might even be worth looking at putting your prices up, because there's also a part of it's, a mindset thing, that people think, well, if they're charging that, they obviously can't be very good.
Esther
Definitely. Yeah. So much. We could go on about this and we might do another podcast about the cost of living crisis and recession and how to save money in other areas. Things that we've already mentioned about looking at LTDs (lifetime deals), saving money that way instead of having out monthly to a certain app that you're using, maybe by the outright use of it, There's other ways rather than, I'm going to say again, cutting off your nose despite your face. We like how your face looks with the nose on it. That's it for today, guys. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing, more waffle and more fun. Talk to you then. Bye bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys. Have a great week.
Esther
Is there anything that you would cut back on?
Melanie
Me?
Esther
Yeah. Apart from the takeouts? Unless you don't.
Melanie
I don't really do takeouts well, not very often. God, I'm so down to the bone these days.
Esther
Would you move your office back to your house?
Melanie
I couldn't work it. But you know what I haven't done for a couple of years because I've been so busy is, I haven't looked around and looked at the market. And I've had, just like you, we've had bills come out and, oh, my Lord, they're expensive. So I've actually diaried them all for next year now, the month before, to shop around, because I'm not paying that again.
Esther
No, being organised pays off.