With the Dow dropping nearly 20% the US economy seems to be poised for a technical “bear” market.  Not that the word “technical” means a whole lot, when you have commodity prices rising driving an inflationary marketplace.

But with that in mind, and with the announcement from Zenith media in which they cut the rest of the years media forecast by .03% (from a previous increase of 3.7% to a revised 3.4%), so what’s a marketer to do?  And where should you invest your dollars to maximize the highest ROMI?

A number of factors play into these types of decisions, but let’s hash through a few of today’s market and customer realities.

1. Gas Prices – with gas prices around $4.00 per gallon, the consumer is trying to combine trips, limit overall travel, etc.
2. Pocketbook Squeeze – with not only gas going up, but the costs of food, clothing, etc. also being pushed upward, the consumer is searching for the lowest possible cost.

Here’s how and why I’d rank my media choices based on the before mentioned consumer challenges….

1. Search – allowing the consumer to find the lowest price and/or check the availability of the product before running out can work to your advantage.
2. Point of Sale – boost up those POS signs in store to drive impulse purchases.
3. Web Site – ensure your web site is optimized for search; landing pages are extra easy to navigate and drive to checkout quickly.  And use the web site to advertise sales, discounts, low shipping costs, etc. 
4. Interactive Banners – driving demand generation banners which allow the consumer to actually purchase the product at a lower cost (while keeping shipping costs manageable) is another way to help the consumer and gain market share.  Make it easy, fast and cost efficient.
5. Radio – it’s cheap on a per GRP basis, easy to target and can be used to get the message out about a sale or discount.  The key I believe is to ensure you have plenty of frequency during afternoon drive and be sure to list out locations so the consumer can make a “quick” stop to pickup the item(s).  My recommendation… weekday’s afternoon drive/weekends during the entire day part when shopping is at it’s highest.
6. Newspaper – yes newspaper… but I would use it only on key shopping days such as Saturday or Sunday.

Others that should also be considered but I won't rank include:  direct mail, email, etc.  All the other media types fall off my list at this point for demand generation, because either the cost is a bit too high or the return is bit too low.

Needless to say, regardless of the media type, you must spend money during recessionary times to make money… they key is investing it appropriately.

Scott