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Predicting/Preparing for Economic Transitions 39

weakened demand. They also went further than this to
expand the number of economy seats because of a shift
in travel behavior, and added highly valued amenities to
their premium cabins so that when the economy recovered,
they would have a jump on the competition, with a truly
differentiated premium cabin for a superior customer
experience.

“We didn’t recheck our consumer behavioral assumptions
in the new economic cycle” Recheck your behavioral buying
assumptions of your target market. Economic recoveries and
contractions, particularly when they are significant, can cause
fundamental shifts in buying behavior. In the case of a
severe recession, relatively affluent consumers will adapt
buying behaviors totally foreign to their previous buying
behaviors. For example, affluent homemakers will begin
clipping coupons where they have never done so before.
Others will start subscribing to local magazines or news-
papers just for the Sunday coupon sections. Refreshing your
market research on when and how consumers are buying
during transitions is critical to truly understanding what type
of marketing and communication should be done if the busi-
ness wants retention as well as creating effective acquisition
strategies.

These consumer behavorial changes are never just one-
dimensional. Many people have grown up with parents who
experienced severe economic conditions such as the Great
Depression. When these consumers are faced with similar
severe economic conditions to those experienced by their
parents, underlying sensitivities will be brought to the surface
which will engage behavior that had previously lain dormant
in their consciousness. For example, if a parent who experi-
enced the depression era instilled a certain fiscal value
system in their children, that grown child’s value system will
now have a higher consciousness triggered by economic
conditions that harken back to the stories of their parents.