When [recession is] king [PR] will be first against the wall

I appologise up front for the brutal butchering of the Radiohead lyrics. 

Now I prescribe to the ‘marketing is the first against the wall’ theory of economics.  It’s not the best theory to have when you work in the sector but it does quite often hold true.

Having gotten into PR during the fall out from 9/11 and the resulting crash in the stock market I’ve seen the up turn in business and things start to recover.  Sadly, today the biggest FTSE drop since 9/11 has happened.  Even the Chinese markets have suffered.  So… I think I need to start singing the praised about marketing and what it can bring.

This doesn’t mean blogging about it but it does mean giving quantifiable metrics that clients can use to then pass to the CEO.  Hopefully the CEO will then say “wow, Kevin” for the marketing officer in question will undoubtedly be Kevin.  “These are impressive and every £100 we have put into PR is delivering £400, with a visible upswing in web traffic everytime an announcement / piece of PR activity is seen.  Have and extra 10 per cent.”

Sadly I have a feeling it may go something like this.  “Clive.” Because, this time it will be a Clive.  “Step into my office, what have you done with the money?  I see you have a booklet and a few clippings there.  What does this mean to the business?  I love that the profile has increased and my picture is in the FT but right now there is a possible recession on.  I’m afraid we’re going to cut the marketing budget by 20 per cent.  Sorry Kevin, uh, Clive.”

I do  think that PR is going to need to justify its existence if it is to avoid being first against the wall.