So these last few months have been extremely hard on the advertising industry and on me personally.  No matter where you turn it seems everyone is talking about the horrible economy, and about how to avoid a depression.

Sorry, but when people sound hopeful about avoiding a depression, that still does not help instill confidence.

Given this news, many of my clients have asked to cut their budgets in the last few weeks.  Below is a list of reason they have given for cutting their budgets, and what my colleges and I have said in response.  (remember we specialize in retail advertising so the answers and questions lean that way.)

1. We can cut budget and keep our share of voice, because our competitors have cut budget – Our goal has never been share of voice, but share of mind.   We want XX% of people to think of your brand for XX product.

2. Let’s cut for just a little bit and see what happens – The ramifications of cutting marketing spend are not instantaneous.  If I cut budget one week, my sales may not drop to the next etc., plus it may take some time to gain back the level of awareness we once had.

3.Spend to Sales is out of proportion - Let’s look at the numbers based on the long term not month to month, and figure out our best long terms marketing goals.

I wish I could tell you these all worked, but of course they did not.  Some cut, some did not, and more will cut in the future.   No matter how many blogs we read that tell us now is not the time for an aggressive advertiser to cut budget,  we all know it will happen anyway.

Let’s use this time not to complain or whine.  Let’s use this time to think more strategically, and try to get the most out of every dollar we do have.  What have you wanted to do with your marketing, that now might be a good time to try?

Lastly Apple’s customer service is now having trouble keeping up with its growth. Don’t get me wrong, once you talk to someone you get great service, but getting to that point is difficult. Apple stores are always busy, and getting the time with a Genius can take days. Online their customer service is non-existent except for a few tutorials, a FAQ’s and a forum that no one from Apple seems to look at or moderate. Heck even finding there customer service phone number is next to impossible on the Apple Service website.

Why don’t they have live chat customer service? Why don’t they moderate the forums and see what the problems are? I called them the awhile ago because location services on my iPhone would not always work. I could find all sorts of post online about this very location services problem. Some on the Apple forum, others on Twitter or MacRumors Forums. To anyone who knew their way around the internet, it was obvious there was a problem.

But when I called Apple, they told me I was the first one ever to report the problem. She then talked to the CS supervisor and he still knew nothing of the problem. I told them to look at their forums. She then gave me an incident number for me to post on the forums so others could call in with the same complaint.

Shouldn’t Apple be doing this? Why are they relying on their customers to take care of other customers? Invest in your customers and they will reward you, even more than they do now. What if Apple was actively monitoring and posting in their forums? Think how useful it would be. Think of all the great ideas that would be shared, and the increase in brand loyalty they would have. (ok it is already pretty hi, but how long can it stay there?)

We are your customers Apple! We make you great! We control your future! If you do not listen to us, we will go away. We are a fickle bunch, and if you do not develop for us, take part in our conversation, or listen to us we will go way!

We’ll we may wait tell Steve leaves, but we will go away.