With the U.S. economy experiencing major challenges amidst bank failures and Wall Street woes, what's next for marketing? Do we go back to business as usual once we have a bipartisan agreement in place? Or are things going to change for us?


The system is so complicated and perhaps so broken, that no one really knows what will become of our economy, and the global economy, which is greatly affected by what transpires in the U.S. I have zero economics background, so like many others, I am vulnerable to blog and news chatter. Lately, I'm hearing very pesimistic predictions, saying that we're headed for long-term economic disaster, no matter what gets done in the short term. The fallout will continue, they say, more banks will go under, and the FDIC itself is at risk, with a deposit insurance fund that stands at 1.19% of insured deposits.
And the car companies are next. Famed economics maven, Gary S. Becker says on the Becker-Posner Blog, "All the American auto companies are now asking for handouts too since they cannot compete against Japanese, Korean, and German carmakers. They will probably get these subsidies, even though these American companies have been badly managed."
I consider myself an optimist, but with all this doom and gloom discussion, are we burying our heads in the sand if we go about business as usual? How will this change what we do as marketers? What will we need to do to adapt to the changing environment? How will we address a reduction in consumerism, cutback in marketing budgets, and/or marketing staff lay-offs?
What do you think? Are you changing your marketing strategies?