News Roundup
February 18, 2009

Letters to the Editor

Main Street Has Ability to Adapt More than Wall Street

Perhaps nowhere else in the country do “Wall Street” and “Main Street” coexist in closer proximity than in New Jersey. While it seems larger corporations are making headlines every day for just not “getting” the current economic slump, small businesses are doing something that large entities can’t — they are adapting quickly.

Your recent article “Small Businesses Counter the Recession by Switching Gears” on Feb. 2 states this same sentiment. Agility is a Main Street company’s best characteristic — those small businesses mentioned in the article have expanded their capabilities and zeroed in on different marketing strategies to stay ahead of the lethargic market conditions bound to be ahead this year.

What’s exciting to those of us in the marketing business is seeing Web, marketing, advertising and public relations teams working together more, and blurring the lines that used to divide them.

The presidential election showed us that not only is the general public online more than ever before, but they are actively mobilizing themselves within their own communities. It is our responsibility to retool and rethink the way target markets are approached. Only then can small businesses learn from what Wall Street has done wrong and communicate effectively. With a recession and new technologies converging in the same era, small businesses are utilizing new promotional tactics to stay profitable.

Perhaps it’s time to explore blogs as a way to build buzz or add more interactive elements to a corporate Web site. Integrated marketing is not a new concept, but how businesses choose to reach existing and new target audiences must be diversified as we find ourselves at this new technological and economic juncture. Small businesses need to stay aware and in touch with what their customer base is going through, and adapt quicker than ever before to stay in the game.

Jeff Barnhart, CEO
Creative Marketing Alliance
Princeton Junction