Seems like you can't turn on the TV news or pick up the daily newspaper these days without being bombarded by messages of doom and gloom.

High petrol prices. repossessions, falling house prices, floods, famines, heat waves, foods that make you sick.

It's almost like the news media is in a never ending race to tell us why life is no longer worth living.

But of course, the news media are usually wrong. It's just 'bad news' sells newspapers and keeps people watching TV. (If you don't believe me, get out a pen and pad of paper and keep a tally when you next watch the evening news. Mark 1 point for each good news or bad news story and you will soon begin to realise what I mean).

The reality of it all is that things are rarely as bad as they are made out to be. Still, all this talk of doom and gloom does have an effect on consumers.

They cut back on spending, change their priorities, and more and more, just stop reading the paper or listening to the news. It has already been suggested that this will be the worst year for retail spending on record!


So guess what...

The shops have already decided to cut their advertising spend this year.

That's just CRAZY! They should advertise as normal, if not a little MORE than in previous years.

When it comes to products, doom & gloom doesn't sell. What sells are products that offer hope.

Hope that through the use of a product, things will be better for the customer, for their family, and for the world.

If you want to do well when the consumers are worried about the future, create and sell products that offer hope.

Because that's what consumers want. Hope.