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"I've thought about it, and I've decided not to participate." -Sam Walton, late chairman of the board of Wal-Mart, on a recession.

To cut advertising and marketing or not to cut? This, during a recession, is the question. While companies may be tempted, during an economic downturn, to strip away resources from "luxury" expenses like advertising and marketing support, studies show that companies and organizations that maintain strong marketing efforts through a recession are more likely to weather the economic downturn than those that do not.

Says Sergio Zyman, CEO of Zyman Marketing and former marketing officer for Coke, "Marketing money is like the fuel in a car. You take the fuel out of the car, and the car stops. You take the marketing out of a brand, the brand stops," (quoted in Marketing News). In addition to promoting specific features of a brand, marketing maintains the brand's basic street recognition. It both positions the brand within the public's consciousness and works to continually reinforce that position.

A widely cited study that supports the importance of marketing during a recession is a 1927 paper published by the Harvard Business Review. Two hundred companies were tracked through the Depression; those who advertised the most had the largest sales increases. Since then, numerous studies have made similar conclusions.

Recent example: Microsoft chose 2001 as the year to launch its first global ad campaign for Windows XP. The results justified the expenditure. According to Microsoft's UK Director of Marketing Oliver Roll, sales have been 40% ahead of expectations in the UK alone (quoted in MarketingForumEurope.com).

We know that advertising works, but why does it work especially well during a recession? One reason may be that because many companies cut back on advertising, those who do not cut back are more prominent and visible than ever before.

Another reason may be that during a recession, consumers think even more critically and carefully about their purchases. Says Roll, "It's a good environment for people to think carefully about how they spend." Now more than ever, consumers look for value in the products they purchase and seek a positive trust relationship with the brands they choose. In the words of Robert Wilson of the Newspaper Association of America, "People don't like to do business with strangers. Advertising is a way of not being a stranger."