This article is the first research I published in an academic journal. It received widespread attention and was cited in Philip Kotler’s first edition of Marketing Management, a book that eventually became the best-selling marketing textbook in the world. That encyclopedic volume of marketing knowledge helped establish Professor Kotler (and Northwestern University) as the leading marketing professor in the world, a researcher particularly skilled at interpreting current research and forecasting the future of marketing.
Although I was limited at the time I conducted this research to using secondary data for my analysis and print advertising as an example, I believe the principle of contra-cyclical marketing is still applicable today. During recessions, strong firms have the ability to capture market share from weaker competitors. Studies at the Marketing Science Institute, years later, concluded that profitability and market share are highly correlated.
If you use your strong balance sheet to maintain advertising and marketing activities during a recession (and maintenance of advertising presence is a relative increase compared to weaker competitors forced to reduce advertising expenditures), you have the opportunity to turn recessions into opportunities for future growth and profitability. You might even emerge from the recession owning your weaker competitors or snagging their customers. A recession is a terrible opportunity to waste.
