Marketing During A Recession: Risky Business
This week, I have been discussing marketing during a recession. Yesterday, I wrote about the illusion of stability and that post ended by leading into a discussion of risk.
Most dictionaries (including this one, this one, and this one) talk about risk from a negative point of view. Risk is a chance to suffer harm, possibility of injury, or how likely you are to expect a loss. Yikes! Why would anyone court risk?
Your Job = Risk
What dictionary definitions of risk omit, however, is that risk also offers opportunity. It gives you the chance to gamble (and win) big. And let me assure you: you cannot succeed in marketing if you aren’t willing to take risks. It’s just impossible.
So get over your fear of risk. It’s easy to say and harder to do, I know. But consider how dangerous fear can be to your marketing initiatives. Lois Kelly had this to say in the recent Age of Conversation 2: “People are so fearful about being different that fresh ways of communicating are often never allowed their first breath.” How sad.
Once you get over the fear of being different, of possibly failing, a world of possibilities opens up. Are you still worried? Well, maybe this will help tip the scales:
You’ve got no choice.
David Armano And Seth Godin On The Inevitability Of Risk
In a recent must-read post, succinctly titled “Everything Is Risky,” David Armano outlines why risk is inevitable and therefore worth embracing.
“With every post I write, I’m taking a risk…When all roads lead to risk, there’s only one thing we can do. Live. We live lift by learning, by trying, by falling down and getting up and learning from the best teacher we’ve ever had – life itself…Those who barricade themselves indoors thinking they avoid risk end up risking the quality of their social interactions.”
If risk is inevitable, doesn’t that change the definition of risk? Instead of just a chance to do harm or incur injury, risk allows for huge wins – it gives you the opportunity to succeed.
Everything is risky, all the time.
“It’s all a risk – always. That’s not true, actually. The only exception: It’s a certainty that there’s risk. The safer that you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is. That’s because the world is certainly, definitely, and more than possibly changing.” -Seth Godin, Tribes, audiobook 2:47:50
If all this is making you nervous, don’t worry – it should. However, while risk may be inevitable, your return on that risk is anything but certain. That’s where you come in as a professional marketer.
Joseph Jaffe And The New World
Our job as marketers is to manage this risk, not try to eliminate it. And we have more tools than ever to access information, review metrics, and make bold, calculated decisions. Joseph Jaffe has this to say in Join The Conversation:
“Mitigating risk is no longer a best practice…Risk is relative, and the return is most certainly going to be more and more a function of outthinking and outsmarting, compared to outspending and outlasting” (page 280).
Risk is inevitable. But failure is not.
Tomorrow I will discuss the role of failure in this new world of marketing. Instead of the permanence of a printed brochure or the 30-second lifespan of a television commercial, online marketing campaigns can (and should) be re-worked as situations require. In fact, failing can often bring the type of marketing insight that will eventually allow you to succeed on a massive scale.
Tomorrow, I will explain why failing can be the best thing to happen to your brand. Finally, on Friday I ill end this week-long series by discussing whether the recession could cause social media marketing to tip over into the mainstream. Please join us tomorrow by subscribing today. And take a risk today!
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(Photo courtesy of hrlndspnks via Flickr)
Tags: David Armano, Joseph Jaffe, Marketing, Online marketing, risk, Seth Godin
DJ,
There is a correlation between risk and reward. The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward. The lower the risk, the lower the potential reward.
Most people play it safe and minimize risk, and that’s why they rarely move out of the status quo. On the other hand you see people who strike it rich, but they took great risks to do so and often went broke or failed many times in the process.
The same is true for investing. Low risk products like bonds give a lower % yield closer to 5% but they are stable and you will likely not lose your money. High risk tech stocks can offer a higher % closer to 20%, but you can also lose your shirt.
You need to decide what you want and where you are in life and weigh how much risk you are willing/able to afford.
I agree the current market is scary for most, but it has terrific opportunity for those willing to take some chances. I think being willing to take the risk is part of getting over “the Dip” that Godin talks about.
Michael, you WAY over simplify the risk/reward scenario.
Low risk does not translate into low reward potential. In fact, the opposite can be true. Many business turn into highly profitable ones by taking the slow and steady route. Mine for example.
Your comments seem to speak more to the last 10 or 15 years of capitalism when returns were placed before anything else.
That’s what most people are thinking. They are thinking about the risks but actually that’s the time when opportunities start coming into the market place.
An opportunist will grab the right ones while others just keep thinking whether they exist and where.
A line from you article – “Everything is risky, all the time”
Yet there are deal and opportunities out there in the market, not all risks pay off but some do. You do not know know which ones will. You have to take your chances.
In the long run you will see that most did work out well.