As I sat down to start working on next week’s post, I truly am at a loss for words. Saturday four of my co-workers were headed to Florida for a week of fun at Phillies training camp when their luggage started coming off the roof of the car. They pulled off the highway to retrieve it and a car struck them. Two are okay, one is in intensive care, but our web developer died on the scene. He was a 30-year-old father of two kids under five.

While nothing compares to losing a father, this has made me think about how our country has gone through a lot of loss in recent years. On 9/11 we lost thousands of lives and our sense of security. Since then we’ve lost thousands of soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And with the recent economic downturn we’ve lost our financial security. Every day people are losing their houses, their jobs, and their retirement income. It’s no wonder people are turning away form material things and towards relationships and faith.

So as I start IMC 612 Consumer Behavior this week, I am struggling to find meaning in selling material things. “Consumer” seems like such a cold and impersonal term. Each consumer is a real person with feelings, families and dreams. Economists tell us we need to spend our way out of the recession. If so, then advertising plays an important role. But as marketers is it possible for us to play an even larger, more meaningful role in the recovery?

I have some brave suggestions for marketers in this economic climate:

1. Donate a portion of your advertising budget for the year toward a charity that helps families that have lost their homes and jobs. Use PR and PSA’s to elicit support and/or matching funds.
2. Keep your traditional plan, but create a program to donate 10 percent of total sales for the year to that same charity. This would promote spending while still benefiting families in need.
3. Empower employees in your organization to make unique contributions to the needs of their local communities. This grassroots approach would change lives on a more personal level, doing good while creating lasting relationships.

Is there any basis to my suggestions? Would they work? Since I am in Consumer Behavior I offer this March 10th New York Times as evidence that they may. Far from a scientific study it does give insight into the consumer mindset.

And as my textbook tells me, applying consumer behavior to marketing programs is more of an art than a science. Here are some highlights:

• Even those with a regular income are reassessing their spending habits, perhaps for the long term.
• Maxine Frankel, said, “I feel much more satisfied with the things money can’t buy, like the well-being of my family. I’m just not seeking happiness from material things anymore.”
• Carol Morgan, said she felt a responsibility to cut needless spending. “I see it as the right thing, as the moral thing to do.” She also hopes to increase her charitable giving.
• Economists point out that the Great Depression created a generation of cautious savers. The longer the downturn this time, the more likely it is to change financial habits permanently.
• Tracy Johnson, a researcher says, “If you just give people the opportunity to buy more, you’re not matching up to where their minds are.”
• Juliet B. Schor, an economist said consumers’ focus may have shifted, she said, from striving to catch up to those above them to contemplating the fates of those below them.

Are these suggestions crazy or just crazy enough to work?

I apologize for the somber post this week and promise next week will be more lighthearted and fun.

In the meantime my thoughts and prayers go out to my co-workers and their families. When I was at a loss for words these were the only words I could find:

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18

I wish they all would have made it to Clearwater

Keith