Recession-Proof your company with VoIP? Come now, marketers, there’s really no need to lie…

I’m all in favor of situational marketing, in which you take advantage (within reason) of whatever circumstances are floating around out there. Headline news, sporting events, seasonal doings, and ongoing situations like the current knock-down/drag-out recession.

in fact, marketers should be explaining how their goods and services can help their customers survive hard economic times. Contributions to the top line, efficiencies to the bottom line. Go for it.

But claiming that VOiP/Unified Communications can recession-proof your company?

Sorry, but I call marketing BS.

John the Opinionated Marketer forwarded a webinar invite he’d received from Avaya. All the way from Boston, I could see John in Houston shaking his head and raising his eyebrows.

As John and I both know,cutting your communications costs through UC may be one thing that you can look at. But, hello, putting in VoIP phones is unlikely going to do the full trick. There are dozens of places where companies can and should look for efficiencies. Phone costs are just one of them.

Too late to start now, but they should also have conserved enough cash (or have a good enough credit line) to see them through rough spots. And they shouldn’t have been doing good-times wild and crazy spending to begin with. In truth, depending on what business your company is in, there may be no way to fully recession-proof your company - which is not the same as saying that you can’t take steps to minimize the agita and disruption that an economic downturn can cause. But some businesses are just plain cyclical, and with today’s inter-connected global supply chains there are some types of enterprises that just cannot and will not ever be fully immune.

Anyway, while I do give Avaya some credit for tying their services to savings, I don’t really think there was any need for them to so exaggerate what they can actually do for you with respect to recession-proofing your business. It’s kind of like telling a distressed homeowner that putting in a Magic Jack will save them from foreclosure. Anytime marketing stretches a point this far, customer and prospects start wondering what else they’re BS-ing about. Which is never a good thing.

And while I’m on Avaya’s case, one of the points they make about their service is: Enable your mobile, virtual and anywhere employees to stay productive 24×7.

Now there’s a scary thought. I don’t care what kind of neuro-enhancers you’re issuing to your employees, ain’t no one going to stay productive 24/7.

---

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader. If you don't have a feed reader, you can always have these articles delivered to your email inbox every day. Click here to sign up.

The Opinionated Marketers | Powered by WordPress | ElegantBlue is a custom theme by Nathan Rice