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Easing the Creative Process and Enhancing Business Profitability:
Mid-Atlantic Freelance, LLC on How to Save Corporate America


American consumers are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the year-long credit and economic crisis. Increasing job cuts, rising unemployment rates, and diminishing household net worth have affected everyone to varying degrees. As a result, many consumers are reducing discretionary spending and taking tougher approaches to their consumption priorities. Unfortunately, the American business community is not immune from many of these pressures. The result is that many companies are searching for ways to sustain their businesses while reaching their consumers in a more cost-effective way.

The number of jobs lost in September, 2008 was twice the number of jobs lost in August, 2008. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are now more than 9.5 million people unemployed. Many experts believe that by late 2009, the unemployment rate could reach almost 8%, up substantially from the current 6.1% level. Just recently, Hewlett Packard (HP) instituted a major “reorganization” by releasing an estimated 24,000 employees. HP’s cuts were made across the board, including to their marketing department. Already a small group by many large company standards—only 200 professionals—HP made even deeper cuts to this group, slicing it to a mere staff of 30. In July 2008, major layoffs at Sun Microsystems led to an estimated 30-65% of their marketing department being laid off. Small businesses are also feeling the impact of the economy’s downturn. By mid-2008 an estimated 17,000 small businesses were indicating that they were beginning feel the effects of the credit crunch and spending reductions.

While there is no way to precisely predict the number of companies which have reduced their marketing and communication departments, past data suggests that the unemployment rate for this career is likely higher than average. Often, when businesses feel the pinch of a weakened economy, the first place companies cut spending is on marketing, advertising, and communications. Unfortunately, reducing expenditures on marketing, advertising, and sales in an economic downturn often leads to a missed opportunity of reaching customers just at the point when you need to reach them most, and hinders a company’s ability to maintain their visibility in the marketplace.

With leaner corporate budgets, the imperative to create effective and responsible marketing programs—designed to drive sales and profits—grows daily. The challenge of meeting this imperative also becomes more daunting. Those companies which can adapt to these new realities and develop new, more creative ways to “re-market” themselves with more limited budgets will succeed. In many cases it may also re-energize employees and give them a sense of confidence that they can weather the economic storm and come out ahead.

The objective of the White Paper produced by Mid-Atlantic Freelance, LLC (which can be found at http://www.midatlanticfreelance.com/sit ... papers.pdf) is to explain the concept and role of a Creative Services Knowledge Broker™. A Creative Services Knowledge Broker™ is a third-party creative marketing resource for companies with limited budgets or limited marketing and communications resources. In essence, a Creative Services Knowledge Broker™ can help an organization do more with less. They can become an integral part of the creative process, and can be a valuable tool in to preserving a company’s market presence by developing creative ways to help companies grow revenue and improve cash flow.