Be careful not to focus all your energy on where the market is at present. My ex husband was a national champion clay bird shooter and as anyone familiar with this sport will tell you – it is no good shooting at where the target is now. You need to be able to anticipate where the target will be by the time your shot reaches it.

With limited budgets for marketing and new products at present, the focus should still remain at the point in the future at which you want your message to coincide with a ready buyer. This may seem basic marketing 101, and it is. But my point is, that is can be easy to aim at the wrong part of the curve when the forces seem so compelling.

Retention strategies are important right now, but growth strategies must be worked around how the consumer is going to recover from the current downturn, what their needs will be, what their thought processes will be, what buying decisions will take priority etc. Think forward, and move your resources to where the consumer will be when they have budget to invest again.