Solving the Inflation Equation:

Build A Resilient Marketing Strategy

Consumers are now feeling the squeeze more competitive. You’re setting up your
of inflation, which feels particularly painful business to lose if you hobble your strategy
Has inflation had an impact on you personally?
after the long quarantine of the pandemic. from the start.
When dollars won’t go as far, consumers are
Dramatic Impact
getting much more discerning about what So what does the path forward look like? 23%
they’re spending their money on—and who We’ve got the preparation framework you Moderate Impact
they’re spending it with. need so your organization can move fast to 44%
Small Impact
respond to changing 26%
Brands are understandably freaked out. behavior, mitigate No Impact
But it’s not time to panic. risk, and maximize 5%

growth potential through this period of Not Sure

2%
Shutting off ad spend or significantly cutting uncertainty—while setting your business up
marketing budgets isn’t the answer; after all, for long-term success when the economy
Source: GWI
the battle to earn customers is only getting bounces back.

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 Table of Contents

The AAA Framework: How to Build a Resilient Marketing Strategy 3

Alignment: Establish A Shared Purpose 4

Teams and stakeholders: Unsiloing the org 4
Goals and objectives: Setting the course 6
KPIs: Evaluating holistic performance 8
Brand values: Building equity and connection 9

Audience: Invest In Your Most Valuable Asset 11

Consumer insights: Keeping your people front of mind 11
Customer journey shifts: Leveraging first-party data insights 13
Acquisition: Driving growth efficiently 14
Retention: Increasing lifetime value 16

Agility: Unlock The Ability To Pivot Strategically 18

Budget flexibility: Following demand 18

Win rooms: Mobilizing your experts 19
Messaging and creative: Prioritizing empathy and transparency 20
Data-driven decisions: Adapting based on measurement and testing 22

Don’t Panic: Get Smarter Instead 24

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THE AAA FRAMEWORK: AAA: The Ultimate Marketing Preparation Framework

How to Build
a Resilient
Marketing We like to joke that our
AAA framework essentially
ALIGNMENT
Establish a

Strategy fulfills the same function as

AAA on a road trip: when
shared purpose

the unexpected happens,

There are three key components you need to
you call on AAA to get you
focus on so your marketing strategy is built to
back on track toward your
Assess
not just survive but thrive through inflation: Adjust
destination.
✓ Alignment Adapt
✓ Audience When your teams are AGILITY AUDIENCE
✓ Agility aligned around a shared Unlock the Invest in your
goal and purpose and ability to pivot most valuable
strategically asset
you’re closely monitoring
the changing needs of
your audience, you unlock
agility and flexibility in your
marketing that will open up
real-time decision-making
capabilities that are critical With those three components in place, you’ll be
to achieving both short-term performance fully prepared to continuously assess, adjust,
and sustainable growth during periods of and adapt your strategy to position your brand
uncertainty. for continued success through any uncertainty.

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ALIGNMENT: Teams and stakeholders: A One Team mentality ensures everyone is aligned
Unsiloing the org and has what they need to work and communicate
Establish A It’s highly likely that your marketing team
flexibly across the entire structure of your

Shared Purpose
marketing strategy, so you can react quickly and
is structured around individual channels or
bypass institutional bottlenecks or delays when
business verticals, but that’s not how the
circumstances are in flux.
customer actually works: remember, there’s
The first step in the process focuses on
no such thing as a “paid search customer,”
alignment: getting everybody on the same You need to apply this across internal stakeholders
just a customer. You probably won’t be able to
page around what you want your marketing (including non-marketing leaders or specialists on
change the entire structure of your organization
to actually accomplish and how you’re teams like finance, product, fulfillment, and more),
just because inflation is increasing, so it’s
sharing information. Intentionality and agency partners, technology partners, and anyone
essential to get the right processes in place to
communication are critical to building trust else who is part of the decision-making process.
communicate across teams.
and driving performance. When all of your
channels are working together toward a
One Team Mentality
common goal, your brand is more resilient,
even when you hit the rough waters of an
TOUCH BASE EXCHANGE IDEAS
uncertain economy. Maintain clear Identify opportunities

T E
and consistent for support and amplify
communication across each others’ efforts
teams and disciplines based on the goals
while building strong and strategic direction
connections. of each team and
stakeholder.

ALIGN ON GOALS MEASURE SUCCESS

A M
Understand the Develop a holistic
objectives each team overview of the full
is driving towards and customer journey
what “swimlanes” need across multiple
to be implemented touchpoints in a central
to avoid inefficient dashboard.
overlap.

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H W
AHSEHRAERW
EDE A
PURE
R PNOOW
SE

Keep decision-making as streamlined You can’t build a responsive marketing org

as possible so you can deal with new that can react in real time to new information
information efficiently and effectively, without a One Team mentality across
whether that’s data on consumer spending objectives, processes, and priorities.
and price changes that are directly
impacted by inflation or challenges arising But don’t forget to set aside time to plan for
from secondary issues like supply chain the future. When you’re dealing with various
problems. You need several things in place: fires that require immediate attention, it’s
easy to forget about what will happen when
the fires are out. If you are pulling spend
✓ Clear chain of command for from areas that will impact your goals or
approvals and sign offs on business revenue, align with stakeholders
strategic and tactical changes
about how you will effectively use that

✓ Process for communicating budget once the crisis has passed.

changes to other teams and
stakeholders in the org Be proactive to get a handle on where

✓ Multiple layers of accountability

you’ll be once the economy returns to Consider how the
normal. Consider how the choices you’re
to establish safety margins so
making now could impact what you can
choices you’re
marketers can rest easy that any
issue that arises is always caught do tomorrow: if your business is hit hard making now could
by inflation, what will it take to recover or impact what you
make up lost ground? If you gained new
can do tomorrow.
customers through the crisis, how will you
retain them once circumstances change?

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H A S H A R E D P U R P O S E

Goals and objectives:

Setting the course
If you want to be ready for anything, you
need to start by getting buy-in on where you
want to go. It’s essential to align your team Start with your core business objectives (CBOs) that
around a vision: the goals for your marketing everything else has to work toward. These shouldn’t be
strategy, grounded in your core business
general, wish-list style objectives like “to grow” or “to raise
objectives. That will serve as your north
star when the water starts getting rough: awareness” or “retention.” Instead, all CBOs need to be:
your shared goals are the solid strategic
foundation that unlocks effective agility (and ✓ Focused on a major business objective
performance).
✓ Structured to be quantifiable and measurable
When all of your channels are working toward
a common goal with enough direction and ✓ Built around a specific time frame
plenty of information, your marketing will be
✓ Written in your own words
able to achieve much stronger results, no
matter what is happening in the world. That’s
because the decisions you make in real time
across different teams will still be focused on
making that shared vision come to life.

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H A S H A R E D P U R P O S E
Your CBOs are your final destination, and inflation
shouldn’t impact that. But the channel-specific strategies
and campaign tactics that flow outward from those CBOs
Consumer Spending Behavior Is Changing
are much more malleable. When you trust your teams
are working toward the same thing, you unlock more
General consumer data is a good barometer to understand
flexibility around how they can achieve it.
macroeconomic trends, but you need to dig deeper to understand
Your channel-specific strategies and campaign tactics will how your customers are reacting, what they’re changing, and how
flow outward from those CBOs, and they’re much more they’re making decisions.
malleable. When you know where you’re trying to go,
it’s much easier to pivot your tactics in response to each
situation, no matter how novel or unexpected. You trust How is consumer spending changing?
your teams are working toward the same thing, which
unlocks more flexibility around how they achieving it.
140 Index of real personal consumption expenditure and
Consumer spending is not a monolith: inflation affects components (Feb 2020 = 100)
different groups in different ways, and the resulting
120
behavioral changes won’t be uniform. It’s critical to keep
your overall business objective in place while examining
what you need to adjust at a tactical level to achieve 100
those objectives.

If you throw everything out the window in response to 80

the changing economy, your team will not be able to

effectively make decisions or align on a path forward. 60
Instead, dig into audience segments, product categories, Feb-20 Jul-20 Dec-20 May-21 Oct-21 Mar-22
and channel capabilities to reorient your tactical Personal consumption expenditure Durable goods
approach to meet the current moment while still working Nondurable goods Services

toward your larger business objectives.

Source: Deloitte

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H A S H A R E D P U R P O S E

KPIs: Evaluating holistic MAPPING CBOs TO KPIs

performance
Category Focus Possible KPIs
Once you’ve defined what success looks Branding ✓ Target market favorability ✓ Direct traffic ✓ Blog shares
like, clarify how you will be evaluating ✓ Brand recognition ✓ Earned media ✓ Search volume
✓ External links ✓ Video views
performance against those goals. Your
business performance KPIs need to be Market Share ✓ Percentage of target market ✓ Impression share ✓ New vs. returning visitors
relevant to your core business objectives, captured ✓ Overlap rate ✓ NPS or similar metric
which will in turn map to more specific KPIs ✓ New market growth plans
across different channels; once everything
Revenue & Profit ✓ New vs. existing customer ✓ Customer lifetime value (LTV) ✓ ROI
is turned on, that flow of data will shape how performance ✓ Bottom line growth ✓ ROAS
you’re deploying your strategy (and spend) ✓ Paid media vs. earned and owned
across channels in real time. channels

Engagement ✓ Content effectiveness ✓ Email open rate/CTR/CTOR ✓ Bounce rate

✓ Community engagement ✓ Social shares ✓ Average session duration

Map out your KPIs and split your metrics You might add new optimization KPIs pull various different levers and pivot as
into optimization KPIs and business to the mix based on tactical changes or needed.
performance KPIs to delineate what kind of behavioral shifts that impact how you’re using
insights you’re trying to get from the data. channels. Trust your people: don’t approach Take the lead in determining KPIs against
Everyone needs to agree on business measurement as an iterative process where goals and establishing a single source
performance KPIs; they’re measuring you need to confirm every decision with of truth for measurement and holistic
the overall health of your strategy and every stakeholder using granular data points performance analysis across stakeholders
how it’s performing against your CBOs. at every step of the way. If you work out in so they’re set up for success when the
Optimization KPIs can be specific to a advance what really matters to the business, unexpected inevitably happens.
channel and drive day-to-day decisions. you empower your day-to-day experts to

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H A S H A R E D P U R P O S E

While value is paramount now, values (environmental, social, and

governance issues) still matter.
Importance of purpose in consumer purchase decisions, % of respondents indicating “very important”
Gen Z (n = 176) Millennials (n = 719) Gen X (n = 483) Baby boomers (n = 782) Respondents' top environmental,
social, and governance
Brand values: Building equity statements

and connection Overall

"Companies that put people
before profits"
Authenticity
average
"Companies that are transparent
in what they make/do"
There’s a natural temptation to pull back from 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

“softer” priorities, including values-driven

"No artificial ingredients -
messaging or a focus on social issues or well- Health and the Overall
natural/GMO free"
environment average
being, during periods of inflation because "Recyclable products, packaging,
and related initiatives"
consumers are so concerned with value and 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

pricing. But your brand needs to consider

"Companies that value gender
both at the same time, because brand equity Diversity, equity, Overall equality in the workplace"
and inclusion average
and customer connection are actually more "Companies with an inclusive
environment"
important in an uncertain economic climate. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Source: McKinsey

What you stand for helps differentiate your

brand from the competition and makes the It’s important to figure out what your brand But marketing plays a critical role:
case to consumers for spending dollars with actually stands for and where messaging articulating what larger issues are the most
you instead of somewhere else. around mission or values-driven issues important to your audiences and factor into
and questions is appropriate. Values are a the purchase decision, figuring out where
key part of modern brand positioning, but and when that positioning makes the most
they can’t be siloed in the marketing org; sense to inject into campaigns, and finding
if people see your brand as all talk and no the right balance with pricing and value
action, you risk positioning your business as messaging.
opportunistic and insincere.

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 A L I G N M E N T: E S TA B L I S H A S H A R E D P U R P O S E

Use insights into

what customers
care about and
Content Credence Covers Complements
want from your
brand to inform
COMMUNICATIVE APPROPRIATE THEMATIC FERTILE
NODE "MESSENGER" ITERATIOINS CONDITIONS your strategy.
Marketers can
contribute to
Source: Marcus Collins, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

the conversation
Once you understand what those are, you can apply them in many different ways across your marketing
by defining
strategy and in response to events in the wider world. One of our favorite marketing minds, Marcus Collins
of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, uses a framework to pinpoint the alignment between how brand
a brand’s values and when it makes sense to share them with the world: values align with
customer needs
Content: explore your Credence: make sure Covers: identify Complements:
options for sharing that you’ve found associated issues, understand how and and consumer
those values through the appropriate topics, or questions when you’ll want to expectations.
different channels and messenger for those that are relevant to deploy messaging
media types values and that the your brand values around those values
story you’re sharing to ensure your
(and how you’re brand’s entry into
sharing it) feels the conversation is
authentic and earned appropriate

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AUDIENCE:

Invest In Your
Consumer insights: Keeping
Most Valuable your people front of mind
Pay attention to media storylines–and not
in a sitting-at-home-anxiously-searching-

Asset More information is always better when things

Google way. Instead, look for correlation
between what’s happening in the wider
are changing fast. Internally, you should world and how and what your customers
When prices are rising, consumers start pay close attention to shifts in the news are buying. Focus on becoming a valuable
hurting. They’re overwhelmed and stressed and industry trends as well as any shifts in avenue for information that resonates with
out about their finances and the future, purchase behavior specific to your business your customers without taking advantage
and marketing teams have an opportunity and prepare to re-prioritize in response. of the situation.
to figure out how to build a connection
with those customers and get the right
messaging, products, and information in front
Start by asking some key questions about your core audience:
of them. Don’t just shut everything down
when the going gets rough; consider how ✓ What’s changing in their day-to-day lives?
you can surface the right solutions, address
✓ What new challenges are they facing?
challenges, and make the lives of your
✓ What do they need to overcome those challenges?
customers better to win their business and
their loyalty. ✓ What are they passionate about?

✓ What are they shopping for right now?

✓ How are their shopping habits changing?

✓ What do they want from your brand?

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

We recommend leveraging search data, Understanding the Customer

social data, and tools like Google Trends,
as well as qualitative information from your
customer service and sales teams. You can
also invite your customers to have a seat at
Search Attitudes Online
the table and survey them directly. Our team intent and lifestyle activities
layers additional intelligence from advanced
tools to get even deeper insights into
those essential questions about audience
behaviors, interests, motivation, and media Time spent
App and Social
consumption to power better targeting, online and
device usage media use
creative messaging, and channel selection. mobile

Specific industries can experience radically

different peaks and valleys in an inflation
economy because consumer needs are
Issue New Product
engagement challenges fit
changing in real time. When interests and
priorities are shifting, you need to make sure
you’re stepping up to the plate and that your
brand is one people can rely on.

THINK OF THESE TIMES AS A CHANCE TO

LEARN MORE FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS AND
BUILD A MORE MEANINGFUL CONNECTION.

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

Customer journey shifts:

Leveraging first-party data
insights
Relevant Trends Audience Segments
When customer behavior is changing in
unprecedented ways, brands need to
First-Party Data Creative & Messaging
focus on what they can learn by examining Evolving
firstparty data insights more often and more Analysis & Customer Actionable
Insights Intelligence
Journey
carefully to understand how the customer Third-Party Platform Data Media Mix
journey is shifting.

Look to identify patterns: what are your Media Monitoring Funnel Coverage

customers showing more interest in

week-over-week at the product and
category level? You can combine those
data points with your consumer and
The goal is to better understand how To leverage that data efficiently when
industry insights and feed that back into
broader trends are affecting your budgets may be leaner than usual, evaluate
your marketing channel so you can move
customers and develop agile processes your audience segmentation. There are
budget accordingly, prioritize the right
that ensure your decisions are solidly two main goals to consider: acquiring new
communication channels, and adjust
grounded in data. That’s what will get customers and increasing the lifetime
messaging and content.
you through the turbulent changes in the value (LTV) of existing customers. You’ll
marketing industry and the world at large. need to assess both and make appropriate
adjustments.

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

Acquisition: Continue to align marketing programs

Driving growth efficiently with evolving business goals; a turbulent
economy often requires refocusing on
First and foremost, be present across efficiency. At the same time, lean into
platforms. Even if performance warrants opportunities to capture scale, whether
scaling back spend to some degree, it’s that’s on certain days (promotions, Focus on Efficiency:
never good to shut off accounts entirely and weekends) or new audiences based on
Priority Acquisition Audiences
lose the algorithmic learnings gained over conversion rate (both acquisition and
✓ Lookalike audiences: Use your first-party
time. You also shouldn’t look at any situation retention).
data to generate LAL audiences based on
as black and white: there will be days when
your top customers
performance is better, and you want to be
present to take advantage. ✓ In-market audiences: Google Display
Network (GDN) in-market audiences target
people that are actively researching and
Despite Inflation, Marketing Budgets Are Recovering comparing products

According to Gartner’s CMO survey, the majority of CMOs thought inflationary pressures hitting their ✓ Affinity audiences: Let platforms like
business and their customers will have a positive impact on their strategy and investment in the year
Google, Facebook, and Amazon identify
ahead.
audiences with interests aligned with
Percentage of Revenue Allocated to Marketing 2021-2022
2021 2022
your products, based on their recent and
14.0% ongoing behavior
10.4% 10.1% 10.1%
9.5% 9.7% 9.8% 9.6%
9.1%
8.3% 8.0% 8.4%
7.4% 7.2%
7.0% 6.4% 6.3% 5.9%
5.4% 5.8% 5.8%
5.0%

0.0%
Total Consumer Financiall Healthcare Retail Travel and Media MFG IT and Tech
Products Services Hospitality Businress Products
Services
n= 405 CMOs (2022), 400 (2021), Q: What percentage of your revenue is being allocated to your total marketing budget in 2022?

Source: Gartner

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

Prioritize Opportunities By Expected Impact & Level of Effort

Amplify & Iterate TM+

Upon Content Bidding
Verified Group Optimize Core
Web Vitals on
Discounts Priority Pages Inventory Site &
Prioritize
Optimizations

Create Net New Incentivize Brand

Pages Based on Ambassadorship of
SERP Opportunity Vetted Fanbase with
Commission Strategies

PAID SEARCH & SHOPPING OPPORTUNITIES

PAID SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

SEO & CONTENT MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

INFLUENCER & AFFILIATE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

MULTICHANNEL OPPORTUNITIES

This will help you stretch your investment garner sales during this time is a mistake. these new audiences, and you should
by focusing on users with the highest That doesn’t mean you can’t leverage be prepared to adapt quickly to new
likelihood of conversion while still growing promotions, but be strategic and make sure information. Make sure you’re emphasizing
brand awareness with new audiences. Many to do the math. products that align with the consumer
brands and retailers may be tempted to mindset at the time and that your
slash prices and offer hard-mark discounts The key is to focus on the customer messaging and creative are relevant.
to try to stabilize revenue and drive journey and how it might be changing: Continue testing to see what resonates
acquisition up, but sacrificing margin to you’re making a first impression on over time.

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

THINK OF LTV
AS THE MOST
Retention: personally with your core buyers, it’s when
Increasing lifetime value the going gets tough in the wider world. You EFFECTIVE
should lean into your retention and loyalty WAY TO
Panic can sometimes lead to an segments and make sure you’re specifically
overemphasis on generating new business targeting increasing customer lifetime value UNDERSTAND
by any means necessary, but you shouldn’t (LTV) as a goal. YOUR
lose sight of long-term viability, even (or
especially) when things seem chaotic. Think of LTV as the most effective way to CUSTOMERS AT
Focusing only on new customer acquisition understand your customers at an individual AN INDIVIDUAL
at the expense of customer retention will level and identify which segments are
cost you in the long run: certain groups most valuable to the business. It forms the LEVEL AND
of loyal, repeat customers are actually spine of your marketing strategy, informing IDENTIFY
responsible for generating the most profit everything from media mix to messaging.
for your business. Look to your insights into the customer WHICH
journey to identify which channels your SEGMENTS
These people are already familiar with your highest-value cohorts are using to make
brand: If there was ever a time to connect sure you can connect with them. ARE MOST
VALUABLE TO
THE BUSINESS.

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 AU D I E N C E : I N V E S T I N YO U R M O S T VA LUA B L E A S S E T

Reach out to your best customers, let them

know how your business is responding to
Best Practices for Retention During Inflation Periods
the current landscape, and, if you can, make
them feel special with an offer. If you’re
1 Use the three distinct lists of high-value, good-value, and low-value customers to not prioritizing their needs and investing in
drive decision-making. You want to create lookalike audiences to match your high- those relationships, you’re probably missing
value customers, remarket to increase purchases from your good-value guys, and some significant low-hanging fruit. Plus
remove your low-value customers from targeting campaigns so you’re using your understanding your most valuable customers
budget efficiently. will help you acquire better new customers
using lookalike audiences.
2 Show that you have nothing to hide. If there are supply chain issues or shipping
delays, communicate that with your customer. If you’re making changes to a Keep evaluating your LTV segments and
product, let them know. Transparency is key. campaigns as things change; new audiences
may emerge as more important to your
3 Develop retention initiatives that increase sales by ranking acquisition campaigns business when circumstances evolve,
based on how many high-value customers they yield, then invest more in those. campaigns and tactics that worked in the past
may prove less effective. Be prepared to offer
4 Stay in touch and always let your most loyal customers know how important they are more value throughout the funnel if people
to the success of your business. are less likely to spend or are taking more
time to consider their options, and stay on
top of how their needs are changing.

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 Building Agility Into the Marketing Budget
AGILITY:

Unlock The
Audience
Insights

Ability To Pivot Business

Objectives
Planned
Performance
Flexible

Strategically
Marketing Marketing
Data
Budget Spend
Past DISPLAY DISPLAY
Performance

CONVERGED CONVERGED
TV TV
Industry
As consumers start to feel the impact of Trends
inflation, you need a marketing plan that is
less prescriptive than you might be used to. Budget flexibility: media dollars there when you need them to
The goal is a fluid omnichannel approach
Following demand capitalize on strong conversion rates and
that builds in a much higher degree of
Many businesses struggle to move budget profit opportunities as they arise, versus
flexibility and potential for pivoting and
quickly and might default to shutting the sticking rigidly to a pre-agreed investment
makes space for moving creative assets and
faucet off entirely in times of crisis until they plan.
messaging to different channels. Keeping
can figure out what to do. But investment
your core business objective in mind, work
fluidity will actually set your business up for If you don’t have this in place, you should
out a process for tracking performance
marketing success no matter what happens start the conversation with your CFO now
and quickly iterating on successes across
because it will unlock the ability to follow (or whoever holds the purse strings). You
channels, including creative assets.
demand and capitalize on opportunities as can set ROAS or profitability parameters for
they arise. auto-approval for maximum agility aligned
with performance. It’s also essential to be
The true gamble is depending on strict able to move budget across channels, so
budget allocations that might not pay off make sure you’re maintaining a holistic view
and looking at investment as an on/off of performance.
proposition. You need to aim to have the

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Win rooms: The goal is to empower your leaders
Mobilizing your experts to take decisive action in real time, so
the Win Room’s ultimate output is clear
To make effective decisions fast, you need guidance across teams that will actually
to listen to your channel and media experts execute any changes to the established
and make sure they are communicating plan. Establish a weekly meeting, with daily
with each other; one tactic we recommend communications or check-ins as necessary
implementing is creating a regular Win to monitor ongoing situations and make
Room meeting. It’s a great shortcut to cross- adjustments to new actions or responses.
functional agility without having to change
the entire org chart. It’s important to keep the Win Room agile,
so pay attention to who is essential and
Think of the Win Room like the war room it make sure each member of the Win Room
takes its name from: you’re bringing your is representing a differentiated team or set
experts together to discuss incoming results of priorities to make the most of it. A Win
and make adjustments to your plan based Room entirely comprised of salespeople
on that new intelligence, all while holding or C-suite executives, for example, won’t
everyone accountable to the core strategy. be as effective at driving better cross-
You’ll be able to bring together different functional decisions.
perspectives to analyze data from the field
and generate insights so you can adjust It should be small enough to allow for
your plans and redeploy your resources to effective collaboration, and each person
address critical problems or opportunities. should have clear responsibilities to keep
everyone accountable.
Evaluating Pricing & Promotional Offers
Consumers are focused on value, and you
need to make smart decisions about how
you’re approaching that core question. This
conversation is not one-and-done, but should
be continuously revisited. The Win Room
should:
✓ Leverage data to understand how different
customer segments react to price increases, who
can take it and who can’t, and which products will
be the best fit for specific audiences
✓ Work with other departments to identify where
price increases are essential and where they
can be offset on key items for critical customer
segments
✓ Use data and analytics to monitor key metrics,
customer reactions to price changes, competitor
tactics, inventory, and other factors to optimize
pricing and promotional strategies
✓ Evaluate promotional calendars and offers based
on new behavioral data, margin data, and demand
✓ Communicate with customers and prioritize
transparency where price increases are necessary

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Messaging and creative: Prioritizing empathy and transparency
The way your brand handles a period of crisis or change,
especially how your campaigns connect and resonate
with customers, can and will influence future buying
decisions. At the end of the day, we’re all human and
we’re all going through all of these changes, and that
should be reflected in your messaging.
One critical component of that empathetic approach is
transparency. People are much savvier these days and
are more aware of practices like shrinkflation or slashing
prices but building in fees on the backend; resist those
kinds of tactics. They just end in a bad experience and
lost customers. Instead, be upfront. If you’re raising
prices, explain why it’s necessary. Make the case why
your product or service is worth it. You don't have to
belabor every detail, but be ready with an explanation
that's clear, concise, and compelling.
But not all communication needs to be directly
responding to what’s happening in the wider world.
Sometimes it’s as simple as reviewing and revising for
appropriate tone, specific phrasing, or particular imagery.
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Remember to keep your core business objectives front-of-
mind when considering how to adjust your ad creative to
respond to the moment at hand. Think of them as your Zone
of Truth: when considering big changes, will those changes
support the key priorities? Then start making changes.
Scenario Planning To Stay Ahead of Inflation-Driven Changes
✓ Identify likely scenarios based on the data
✓ Build out supporting assets so they can go through approval
processes now and deploy immediately if the situation comes to pass
✓ Think about helpful customer messaging that will reduce friction or
frustration: what will help keep your customers happy?
✓ Test combinations of messaging that address both pricing and value
but also competitive differentiators like innovation or sustainability
✓ Create flexible templates that are minimally designed but can go out
quickly without multiple rounds of review for less likely events
✓ Keep sites, landing pages, and campaign messaging up to date
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SPOTLIGHT When spending and purchase behavior

are shifting, you need to make sure you
Anomaly Detection: can respond quickly to changes. The
Stay on top of unexpected needs to be accounted for
unexpected changes in your safety margins. That’s where tech
comes in: you can leverage automation and
data science to remove overspending (or
underspending) anxiety around paid media
campaigns.

We use an app called Anomaly

Detection in Polaris, our proprietary
marketing tech, to stay on top of any out-of-
the-ordinary changes. It starts by building an
LEAR N M O R E adaptive 10-day predictive forecast based on
the last 90 days of spend data from a client’s
ad and analytics platforms.
That forecast takes gradual increases or
decreases in spend over time into account
and adapts accordingly, but it’s built to alert
our teams to radical changes or deviations
from the forecast. Then one of our experts can
assess what’s causing the change and take
action so you don’t end up massively over or
under budget.
Anomaly detection is turned on automatically for every
Wpromote client, and alerts come through to our teams
by both Slack and email and are automatically escalated
to the next layer of account management if they aren’t
acknowledged.
People and processes aren’t enough to achieve the
state of constant vigilance you need to make budget
pacing problems a thing of the past. Neither is software.
You need to bring it all together to be fully prepared.

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Data-driven decisions: Find The New Purchase Path

Adapting based on Revisit your customer segments and evaluate
measurement and testing how inflation is impacting behavior, then › Analyze your current conversion flows on the
continuously test multi-touchpoint, cross- website
Digital marketing’s superpower is data. Even channel strategies across key segments
› Conduct A/B and multivariate tests to
though granular performance data has taken to understand what’s working right now,
understand what’s driving conversion and
a hit from data privacy changes, data should with who, and where. You need a rigorous
what’s hindering potential purchases
be at the center of your decision-making at testing methodology that scales to maintain
all times, especially through this economic performance by assessing and adapting › Look at top site landing pages, top exit pages,
reality. messaging, creative, and media mix. and heatmap reports to identify top performers,
allocate spend to those pages, and find ways to
make them even more effective
There are a couple of ways your data Define what KPIs make sense on the channel
strategy should look different than it has in and campaign level according to the needs › Dig into how you can apply that same
the past; in fact, inflation could act as the of the moment, but remember to keep them knowledge to pages that are underperforming
forcing function for your marketing org to aligned with your overarching business
take a more holistic look at performance, objective. Bottom line, you shouldn’t be › Consider going beyond quantitative data by
conducting customer surveys to get even more
profitability, and customer value. You need to completely reimagining how you ultimately
insight into why drop-off occurs and how to
create a cross-functional culture where the define success, but instead adjusting where
increase digital conversions
data is the constant source of new insights you and your team are spending time and
that help you adapt and capitalize on what’s effort based on how you’re performing
working. against your KPIs.

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Applying A Test-And-Learn Approach You should also consider seeking out insights

90% of Budget 10% of Budget based on more specific qualitative data.

Survey your customers directly and bring your
INVEST HYPOTHESIZE customer service and sales teams to the table
to get a more three-dimensional view of your

ALIGN TO ADD OR REMIX BUDGET ACROSS CHANNELS

PRIORITIZE AUDIENCES BASED ON PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS customers’ mindset.
FROM DATA

REDESIGN INVESTMENT WATERFALL TO SCALE WINNERS IDEATE & ITERATE CREATIVE FOR HIGHEST-VALUE AUDIENCES
LOOK TO A VARIETY
OF DATA POINTS TO
IDENTIFY WINNING AUDIENCES, CREATIVE, & TACTICS PRIORITIZE HIGH-POTENTIAL TACTICS ACROSS CHANNELS

IDENTIFY DYNAMIC
MODEL UPSIDE TEST VARIABLES YOU SHOULD
BE TESTING AGAINST.
Don’t assume the same old tricks will It’s not enough to just utilize your own data.
work: look to test new tactics. Open up Incorporate consumer trend data, industry-
viewthrough windows, conversion windows, specific data, and competitor insights into
and remarketing windows to really try and your assessment process to fully account
understand with a better lens what the for dynamic variables outside of your
purchase journey might look like right now. control and adapt effectively and efficiently.

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DON'T PANIC:

Get Smarter
Instead In the end, economic uncertainty is stressful because it calls many tried-and-true
best practices and known truths into question. But change also represents new
opportunity. Your marketing will be ready to stay the course and grow if you’re able
to align on what really matters to your business, stay focused on your audience and
their needs, and unlock data-driven agility.

Build an inflation-proof marketing strategy by:

✓ Focusing on your key business functions to ✓ Preparing for what’s to come by putting the
prioritize the right actions right people, processes, and tools in place

✓ Creating cross-functional connections across
teams to keep everyone aligned
✓ Staying responsive to how changes are
affecting your customers to build brand affinity
✓ Staying true to your brand’s core values to
establish authentic relationships no matter
what’s happening in the world

The Challenger Mindset means your business is

ready to meet any challenge. When times get tough,
Wpromote finds a way to win.

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READY TO THINK LIKE
A CHALLENGER?
Wpromote is an award-winning digital marketing agency with eight offices across the United States.  866.977.6668
Named the Leader in the Forrester Performance Marketing Wave, Wpromote helps brands Think Like
 sales@wpromote.com
A Challenger to drive transformational growth. Challenger clients include leading brands such as
Whirlpool, Zenni, Adobe, TransUnion, Frontier Airlines, and more.  www.wpromote.com

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