It's tempting in a downturn to find quick and easy cuts, and the marketing budget is often the first place companies start looking. Yet there's increasing evidence that the companies that successfully ride out the storm of a recession are those who maintain their marketing spend and commit robustly to their marketing plan; albeit modifying it to take into account changes in the environment.

There are several reasons why this makes sense. Customers do not stop buying in a downturn: they just buy differently. This means tailoring your approach to ensure that they buy from you rather than a competitor; and that means marketing to them effectively.

As the marketplace gets tighter, customers become more careful about where they buy from. This creates a need to target more effectively than before, to attract potential customers and prevent them going to the competition. Targeting is also important because you don't want to be forced into a pricing war, so you need to find other ways of attracting and keeping customers who are perhaps spending less and being more cautious about their buying habits.

Creative thinking
Look at your market and find ways of adapting to the new environment. Consider a computer equipment company that supplies new hardware to businesses. Orders have been drying up because of the downturn; but it has found new business in relocating firms' computer equipment to smaller premises because so many of its customers are downsizing.

Adapting to an environment is what "survival of the fittest" really means; so the companies than can adapt to the downturn are the ones that will thrive. It's arguable that there are only two real business drivers: innovation and marketing. To achieve growth, sustain profits, maintain marketshare and fight off your competitors, you need to continue your investments in innovation and marketing, not cut back on them.

In over-commoditised marketplaces, as increasing numbers of companies fight for a limited marketshare, quality of service can be a company's only real differentiator. If all your competitors offer a quality product and you don't want to compete merely on price, improving service is often the most cost-effective option.

It's only by thinking from the customer's point of view and developing a marketing mindset that you can identify what customers want, discover what your competitors are doing and develop new service strategies that will satisfy your existing customers and encourage them to continue buying from you.

Customers do not stop buying in a downturn: they just buy differently. This means tailoring your approach to ensure that they buy from you rather than a competitor.

Spread the message
Effective communication is vital in a downturn; otherwise, how will customers know what you can offer them? That means maintaining, if not increasing, your marketing spend. When the airline industry suffered a downturn after the 2001 attacks, most airlines pulled up the drawbridge and reduced their marketing, accepting they were going to take a hit on profits. Ryanair bucked this trend by robustly increasing its marketing and experienced significant growth as a result.

This is partly because customer psychology doesn't always follow the logic you might expect. There's evidence that customers can behave counter-intuitively in such situations, for example by seeing a holiday as the one luxury they can still afford. Not only that, but if people love your brand they will still buy from you as long as you maintain a positive presence.

A bold marketing approach looks at what the market wants and acts accordingly, rather than continuing to do the same thing despite changing environmental conditions. If our hypothetical airline company does start to lose business from declining passenger numbers, marketers would try to strengthen the brand by looking for opportunities in other sectors. A strategy where business passengers are targeted, for example, might reap dividends.

What could prove fatal, however, would be to risk damaging your brand by producing cheaper alternatives or falling into the temptation of heavy discounting. While this might increase sales in the short term - and if you need a fast cash injection into the business it's a possible tactic - the long-term result is likely to be that you devalue your business. If you communicate panic to the customer, the customer is likely to panic too and decide against buying.

Move with the times
If you've tried marketing your product robustly and you're still suffering the effects of the downturn, then some disruptive thinking might be called for. If the market won't come to you, then you need to go to the market. A property developer or builders' merchant worried about the state of business in the UK, for example, might look at the possibilities of working abroad; there's no downturn in Bulgaria or Romania.

Any ringfencing of marketing spend must be judicious; you need to allocate spend more carefully and focus on areas where results are likely to be higher. Concentrating on electronic or mobile campaigns instead of direct mail, for example, can reduce costs without necessarily reducing your visibility.

Look at the opportunities technology offers; promoting on social networking sites like Facebook is a cheap and effective way of reaching new customers. Encouraging viral campaigns is the cheapest promotional activity of all, and is often highly effective. So there are ways for the canny marketer to spend less money, reach new people and win new business, if they go about it in the right way.

In summary
Instead of battening down the hatches, investing in marketing during a downturn is the best way to ensure your long-term survival. If you cut your marketing, the gap between you and other brands will merely increase.

Maintain your advertising and promotions; just don't overdo it. Allocate your spend differently if needs be, but don't slash it. Try to offer increased value, rather than price cuts; and bear in mind that customers don't always behave as logically as you might expect them to.

Mark Stuart is a head of research at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. To find out more visit www.cim.co.uk/training or call 01628 427 200