Marketing in the recession workshop

Tough times call for fresh thinking!

Sixty people attended the recent workshop supported by the North Harbour Business Association. at North Harbour Stadium.

In a pre-workshop questionnaire, some interesting stats came to light:. 

What are your top 3 priorities right now?

1

Retain / grow customer base                     32%

Achieve / grow sales $                                36%

Streamline processes/costs etc                 9%     

2

Improve marketing / profile/presence       24%

Streamline processes/costs etc                 24%

Retain/grow sales $ / numbers                  24%

3

Retain/grow sales $ / numbers                  28%

Improve marketing/profile/presence         22%

How would you rank your current business networking activity?

Low:    48%    (1 or less  / month)

Medium:         26%    (2 - 4  / month

High:  26%    (+4 month)

Do you have strong business alignments (e.g. with complimentary service providers)?

No:      37%    

Yes:    63%    

These last two responses show that without spending much money, many small businesses can improve their marketing opportunities by increasing their networking and business alignments; not forgetting that these are people who are already part of the North Harbour Business Association….

Warning bells are ringing given that 26% of people who ranked themselves as “low” for networking also ranked themselves as “no” to having strong business alignments…..