Beware of Miracle Cures for Dark Times

by Vic Drabicky on 05/05/2009 at 9:21 am in Commentary, Opinion Editorial, Within Range

Times are tough right now – it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. From the recession to the swine flu to just about everything else going on in the world, there aren’t too many headlines that don’t make you want to hole up underground. Looking at just the retail world, the news doesn’t sound great either. In fact, the retail news seems unnecessarily negative at times . Check out my earlier post if you want my take on the negative retail news.

I suppose negative news is easier to sensationalize than positive news and we all know that sensationalism sells, especially in the news industry.

With all the bad news out there, we are entering a time when we all craving good news – a time when we all need a little positive news in our lives. We are entering what I like to call the “Infomercial Times” – a time when we are all willing to buy that ShamWow or Silver Bullet just because we all truly want something that works as well as the pitch man says it does and because we can get it at such a great price. We just need something positive to grab on to, which means it’s a salesman’s dream.

The same thing is starting to happen in the world of online. As marketers are forced to cut budgets and are continuing to see revenues dip, they are looking earnestly for a definite bright side. Enter a well-timed salesman with a shiny tool that fixes everything, or a vendor with a “can’t miss offer” and you end up with some poor decisions that produces a short term positive impact but long term damage to your brand and business model.

As we all do our best to fight the doom and gloom that seems to fill our days, please don’t fall victim to the infomercial pitchmen. There are no magical solutions, no guarantees and absolutely no short term fixes to solve all your problems. A ShamWow is still just a glorified towel. Snuggies are basically a blanket for suckers. Deal with the negativity just a bit longer, because when it passes, we can all celebrate the raises we got for not making stupid, rash decisions when times were tough.