Recession Guru

Consumers

Consumers can cut down on spending on subscription TV, broadband and mobile services. Consumers can cut down on this because it is not a necessity.

For example, if the TV subscription costs, lets say $20 a month, while the broadband costs $15 a month, and mobile services costs $50 a month.

One might not find anything interesting to watch on TV during the month, so one can easily save $20 by cancelling subscription TV for the month. The internet usage can be cut down from maybe 3 hours a day to 2 hours a day, to reduce the cost of using the broadband. While cutting down on mobile services like calls and texting, or only calling someone when there is an emergency, or something really important could easily bring the cost of $50 on mobile services to $20.

In the US, reports have shown that 15% of the consumers intend to decrease spending on subscription TV, broadband and mobile services. One of the reports, “US TV Viewers Response to Economic Turmoil”, is going to be issued by In-Stat Reed Business Info shortly. (www.instat.com)

Producers

SingTel, in a bid to curtail costs, is planning to cut its reported S$30 million a year advertising account, among other things. A SingTel spokesperson would not go into the specifics on the revised marketing budget while the CEO of the company's ad agency BBDO Singapore, Jean-Paul Burge, told Marketing that issues relating to advertising cost cutting had yet to be discussed between the pair. However, according to the CEO of Unilever, in times of economic downturns such as this one, it is important that companies resist the temptation to stop advertising. Unilever prefers to maintain support behind their brands. Retrenchment is a No, because that would mean they will need to make structural changes.