Kirk Chritton, Director of Marketing, was chosen as a presenter for the MeritDirect Mailer's Co-op in White Plains, NY. Chritton reported that the event for B2B marketers was well attended, productive and enjoyable.

Chritton's presentation was titled, "Recession Resistant Marketing." In it, he focused on the one-third of the economy driven by institutions. Highlights of the presentation include:

• Institutions are the large non-commercial organizations in the healthcare, education, and government sectors of the economy. 
• While they aren't recession-proof, they are highly recession resistant.
• Through the current economic crisis, healthcare, education, and government are adding jobs. 
• Institutions are on the receiving end of nearly half of the economic stimulus package passed in February. Most of that money is just starting to be spent, and is keeping institutions in a far more stable budget position than general businesses. In today's economy, even the lesser segments of the institutional market are likely to outperform the typical business segment. 
• The headlines are full of stories of institutions cutting back, but many of those "cut backs" are slowed growth or budget cuts of 1%-2%. Most businesses would be very happy to have only a 2% budget reduction.

MCH is making the following recommendations for B2B Marketers: 

• Develop state-by-state marketing strategies. While New York and California are having budget meltdowns, there are 20 states that have stable budgets or very limited budget issues. The stimulus funds are allowing more-stable states to expand programs and increase purchases.
• Identify institutions in your customer file and develop a distinct customer retention strategy for them. 
• Investigate compiled specialty data sources to reach institution decision makers. The complex accounting and purchasing systems used by institutions often obscure the name of the true purchasing decision maker from response files. 
• Follow the stimulus funding. There are hundreds of billions of dollars flowing to thousands of programs at the local level. MCH tracks stimulus-related events at www.stimulusmarketing.com. 
• The stability of state budgets and spending is likely to also apply for the general B2B market. Stronger state economic conditions correlate to a more stable business community.
• Where possible, B2C efforts should consider the consumer's line of work. People who work in the health, education, or government sectors have more stable jobs and should be more likely to make discretionary purchases.

Chritton said the sessions at the Co-op were informative and maintained a tight focus on B2B multi-channel and interactive marketing with insights that could be implemented immediately in the marketplace.