Don't Stop Marketing: Why a Long-Term Marketing Strategy Is Key
What happens when you stop marketing?
Maybe nothing – at least not immediately.
Marketing doesn't work only in the moment. It builds awareness, familiarity, brand memory, and demand over time.
When you stop investing in that presence, you aren't simply saving money, you may also be giving competitors an opportunity to take your place.
A 2023 study published in the Journal of Advertising Research, titled "When Brands Go Dark: A Replication and Extension," examined 365 U.S. brands across 22 consumer goods categories that stopped advertising for at least one year. The researchers found that market share declined, on average, after advertising stopped, with the average decline becoming greater as the period without advertising continued. Relative to the last advertised year, average market-share declines were approximately 10% after one year, 20% after two years, and 28% after three years.
The takeaway isn't that every business will experience exactly those numbers. Rather, the research provides compelling evidence for a broader principle: maintaining a consistent marketing presence matters.
At Strategic Marketing, we've seen the importance of that consistency firsthand. A successful long-term marketing strategy isn't about spending as much as possible or advertising everywhere. It's about making strategic investments consistently enough to keep your business visible, relevant, and competitive.
The Danger of Going Dark
The problem is that marketing and sales don't always operate on the same timeline.
It's tempting to think of marketing as something you can turn on when you need customers and turn off when business is good. That's particularly common when a company has a strong sales period. Leads are coming in, revenue is healthy, and management decides to reduce marketing expenses.
The customer who sees your commercial today may not need your product until six months from now.
Someone who discovers your website today may not become a customer until next year.
A prospect may see your social media post, hear your name on the radio, and eventually search for your company when they're ready to buy.
If your marketing disappears during that period, your brand can become less visible and less mentally available when the buying opportunity arrives.
The researchers behind the "When Brands Go Dark" study point to this concept of mental availability as one possible explanation for why brands can lose market share after extended advertising absences. When a brand isn't present in consumers' minds, it can become harder to think of when a purchasing occasion arises.
That's why a long-term marketing strategy should account for the time between exposure and conversion, not just immediate response. Strategic Marketing can help keep you at the top of your target’s mind across several mediums.
What the Research Actually Tells Us
Researchers examined 365 brands across 22 consumer packaged goods categories in the United States. The brands had stopped advertising for at least one year, and the research examined what happened to their market share afterward. The results showed an average pattern of declining market share following advertising cessation:
lower market share after one year
lower market share after two years
lower market share after three years
These figures are averages, not guarantees. The researchers found that the effects varied considerably, and acknowledged that other factors like pricing, promotions, product launches, and category conditions, can influence market-share performance.
The study doesn't mean that simply spending money on advertising guarantees growth. It demonstrates something more useful: turning advertising off for an extended period can carry measurable risks.
Strategic Marketing can help you build a long-term marketing strategy that fits your budget and needs – contact us today.
Marketing Builds Momentum Over Time
Think about some of the brands you know best. You probably don't remember the first time you heard their name. You may not even remember most of their advertisements. But through years of repeated exposure, those brands became familiar.
That's the power of consistent marketing.
Your audience doesn't need to purchase from you every time they see an advertisement. The goal is to remain relevant and recognizable so that when a need eventually arises, whether 6 weeks or 6 months from now, your business is one of the options they remember.
A strong long-term marketing strategy recognizes that marketing is building an asset over time, not just generating today's leads.What Happens When Your Competitors Keep Marketing?
When you stop marketing, your competitors don't necessarily stop with you.
If your competitors continue advertising while your brand goes quiet, they have more opportunities to occupy the attention you've left behind. They may start appearing more often and reaching your prospective customers before you do.
Maintaining marketing isn't simply about protecting what you've already built. It's also about continuing to compete for attention, awareness, and market share.You Don't Need to Spend More. You Need to Spend Smarter.
A sophisticated long-term marketing strategy should be flexible.
There may be periods when you increase investment around a product launch, seasonal opportunity, or expansion into a new market. There may also be periods when budgets need to tighten. You can adjust your channel mix, frequency, targeting, creative, and budget allocation while maintaining strategic continuity.
That is where experienced media planning and marketing strategy become especially valuable.Build a Marketing Strategy That Can Keep Working
The best marketing strategies aren't designed around a single campaign. They're designed around where your business wants to be one, three, or five years from now.
That means establishing clear objectives, understanding your audience, selecting the right channels, measuring performance, and continually optimizing your investment.
For example, your strategy might incorporate:
Don't Let a Short-Term Decision Create a Long-Term Problem
If your marketing is working, turning it off can seem like an easy way to reduce expenses. But the potential cost isn't always visible on paper.
- Lost awareness,
- reduced visibility,
- declining market share,
- and competitors gaining ground
can take much longer to recover.
"When Brands Go Dark" provides meaningful evidence that extended advertising interruptions can be associated with declining market share. For businesses focused on sustainable growth, that's a reason to think carefully before going completely dark.
Strategic Marketing Can Build Your Long-Term Marketing Strategy
At Strategic Marketing, we've been helping businesses build and manage marketing strategies for more than 30 years.
We understand that successful marketing isn't about finding one channel that works and putting your entire budget behind it. It's about developing the right combination of media, messaging, creative, digital strategy, and measurement to support your specific business objectives.
Our team can help you develop a long-term marketing strategy that keeps your brand visible while adapting to changes in your market and customer behavior.
Most importantly, we help you avoid the "turn it on, turn it off" approach that can make it difficult to build lasting momentum.
Don't wait until your pipeline slows down to start marketing again. Build a strategy that keeps your business moving forward.