Media Buying Experts

Most companies right now are clamping down on their marketing budgets, trying to trim the fat where it’s not necessary.

For General Mills, that strategy was counterintuitive; they need consumers to consider their products perfect for the burgeoning recession, and they ramped up their marketing spending by 16%. Their reward? An 8% increase in revenue, with 14.7 billion in sales, and a consumer base that thought the company’s products were the perfect comfort foods for these difficult times.

General Mills provides a lot of supermarket staples, including soup, cereal, baking goods, instant mixes, and other such homey comforts. Granted, they’re in an industry that naturally endears them to budget strapped Americans. Hamburger Helper, for instance, has improved their sales astronomically, due in no small part to its association with low budgets.

The comfort factor cannot be denied, though. Many of General Mills’ products are sold in similar forms by other companies – the different being that General Mills spent their marketing money hard and fast at the beginning of the recession.

While other companies were unsure whether they were willing to take the risk to put in more marketing money, General Mills had already sewn up consumer loyalty. They had officially become the most comforting brands for the recession.

This isn’t to say that they didn’t put in some new strategies too. The Betty Crocker products, for example, now have a wide and expanding base of recipe-seekers in a spanking-new online forum. But sometimes it’s best to stick with tried and true in uncertain times – a message General Mills managed to drive home to consumers just when they needed to hear it most.

On its 30-year anniversary “microsite,” AdWeek tracks ad spending from 1978-2008.

Here’s what we can see:

• Television has had its ups and downs but is decidedly up over 30 years (about 7 ½ times up)

• Newspapers up and down, and up about 3 times overall, but down for sure in recent years (over the past decade)

• Magazines just slightly higher than flat over the entire 30-year period

• Internet tracked only since 1998 and only one direction (up) with the exception of a dip in the 2002-2003 period

A new study by Nielsen Mobile says that over 20 million U.S. households rely solely on mobile phones from home landline service. The findings suggest one in five U.S. households could be wireless by the end of this year.

Reducing household spending. Is there any surprise that so many are choosing to go wireless at home considering the current economic climate? Consumers are using every strategy possible to reduce overall household spending. The desire to trim away excess expenses is spurring this trend.

“Landline wireless substitution may be just the start,” says Allison LeBreton, Vice President of client services for Neilsen Mobile.

“As wireless data networks improve and speeds become more and more competitive with broadband, some consumers may cut the Internet chord as well, favoring wireless data cards and other access through carrier networks.”

Who’s going wireless? The Nielsen study revealed more important information to consider:
• The U.S. households most likely to abandon traditional landline phone service tend to fall into a lower income category. 59 percent have household incomes of $40,000 or less.
• Small households, with one or two residents, are more likely to eliminate landline phone service.
• Major life events like moving or changing jobs are directly linked to the decision made by a large number of households to rely only on wireless phone service. It is estimated that 31 percent of those who left landline service moved before doing so. 22 percent made the choice after switching jobs.
• Consumers who chose wireless phone service over landline service tend to use mobile phones 45 percent more per phone, and wind up saving around 33 dollars per phone.

Wireless versus landline phones. Wireless mobile phones aren’t for every household, and some consumers will always return to landline services because they are part of a bundled service they want to receive like satellite television or pay-per-view. And sometimes they will continue with what they know which continues to be the landline.