Managing director of Inspire Kbb David Barker says create a flexible marketing machine that can be turned up when sales volume ebbs

It seems logical the wave of activity created by the pandemic will break at some point. So, what should smart KBB retailers be doing about it?

What’s happened to the KBB world over the last two years can only be described using everyone’s favourite pandemic word: unprecedented.

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Lockdown #1 forced everything to a halt. Projects halted, showrooms closed, and tills went quiet.

But during those balmy spring months, the UK didn’t sit idly by making banana bread and exhausting Netflix (although they did do that). They also started making plans for home improvement. With nowhere to spend their money, they also started building up their savings.

And then, as the country started moving again, demand took off, and most retailers have been busy ever since.

But at some point, the wave’s got to recede, right? And what happens then? What happens when you can no longer rely on the eternal rules of supply and demand to keep your showroom busy and your installation schedule full?

You’ve got a couple of choices:

1. Contract, cut spend and hope for the best
2. Double down, work harder for the business that is out there, outspend your competition on marketing, and come out of any leaner period as a bigger, better and stronger business

Double down

No prizes for guessing which approach I’d advocate. The truth is that it’s the only possible approach.

Sure, you could go on a cost-cutting mission and reduce advertising spend and budgets. But then, where are your customers going to come from?

Time and time again, we’ve seen that the retailers who double down during periods of low demand are the ones that:

1. Have the best chance of getting the customers RIGHT NOW
2. Put themselves in the strongest position to get the customers in the future too

We’ve numerous examples of where our clients have gone strangely quiet from time to time. And, of course, they rightly expect our help.

We typically get knowledge of the problem early on before concern really kicks on.  More often than not, we find an increased marketing effort and increase in advertising spend is the proactive route forward.

Just as often, we find that approach works. (In fact, I’d confidently claim we’ve not been beaten yet!)

Marketing machine

So, what do these KBB retailers spend their money on? That’s the other piece of the puzzle: a marketing machine that can respond to the ebbs and flows of the market.

When you invest your marketing pounds (and energy) in the right places, and when you get a marketing structure in place that works, you’re able to dial it up and down based on the fluctuations of the market.

Need more people in the pipeline? Turn it up. Chock-a-block and just want people to see the brand for a few months? Turn it down.

Should the wave starts to ebb, maybe this year or next, KBB retailers will be faced with some new decisions.

Make sure you make the right ones: build a marketing machine that works. And remember that boldness and bravery are always rewarded.