We all are witnesses to end of the era of easy profits in Latvia and to the rapid rise in the cost of living. This quickly results in a shortage of disposal funds which in turn causes a more pronounced tightfistedness, which again leads to pragmatism. In the future, when considering communications ideas and brands, both company CEOs and buyers will look for not only emotional benefits but also rational justification, added value and efficiency. As the economy cools down, the competition gets tougher and this process will gradually weed out the less professional and creative marketing firms. Accordingly, acquiring new clients and maintaining business growth will mean taking them away from weaker competitors instead of simply “skimming them off” from the growing purchasing power and rapid growth of the sector in...

Indeed, inertia and habit possess an incredible force which is difficult to resist. Already for many years and still today, marketing communications channels are mainly chosen by combining in various ways TV, press, radio, outdoor advertising and Internet, since in the past this has generated good results. If up to now approximately 70% of the total campaign budget was allocated to placing materials in the media, then why not simply use such an understandable formula for the next 10 years as well? However, “the mission that we (brand developers) have is not to keep the media business alive but rather the communication and the relationships created with buyers”. This is a statement by Russell Davies given while visiting Riga last week. He has been working for many years as a strategic planner in one of the...