Marketing in the COVID-19 recession
This article is part of a series of articles from the WARC Guide to Marketing in the COVID-19 recession. Read more.
During the 2008-2009 recession, I wrote an article, with my son, about how firms should advertise in a recession (Tellis and Tellis 2009). That article was based on a review of all studies in the previous century, which had estimated the cost and benefit of advertising in versus after a recession. Our conclusion was simple, clear, but counter-intuitive.
Firms are better off acting counter-cyclically. That is, by increasing advertising in...