When Crisis Hits, Smart Companies Double Down on Brand

Your CFO walks into Monday’s board meeting with a spreadsheet showing declining revenues. The automatic response? Cut marketing. Slash brand budgets. Reduce headcount in communications.

After all, these are “non-business critical” expenses, right? 

This thinking has killed more companies than any competitor ever could. Because while you’re saving money on marketing today, your customers are forgetting you exist. And once they forget, getting them back costs far more than you ever saved. 

Investment or Cost?

When business performance dips, boards follow a predictable pattern: cut costs, reduce headcount, eliminate “non-business critical” expenses. Marketing, branding, and communications usually top the cut list. After all, they’re not essential, right? 

Wrong. 

Yes, cutting marketing budgets saves money today and gives you short-term breathing room. But the long-term effects of these cuts are often overlooked or underestimated in the decision-making process. 

Can a few months without marketing really damage your business? Absolutely. The data proves it. Strong brands feel the impact within months. Weaker brands see effects almost immediately. Stop advertising, and sales don’t just pause; they decay. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute tracked this pattern across industries: the longer you stay dark, the steeper the decline. 

Why Short-Term Thinking Fails

So, what happens when companies freeze brand budgets and shift those dollars to performance marketing and sales activation, hoping for quick sales this month or quarter? 

Yes, this can work briefly. If your brand is already strong and well known, you might see immediate sales from performance campaigns. But you’re essentially harvesting the brand equity you’ve already built without replenishing it. 

This strategy has an expiration date. Even lucky companies will see sales stagnate rather than grow in the long term. Why? Because performance marketing only captures people ready to buy today. Brand marketing creates future buyers. You need both working together for sustainable growth. As Peter Drucker said, “Long-term results cannot be achieved by piling short-term on short-term results.” 

How Can Total Silence Have an Impact?

What happens when a brand goes silent? When you stop communicating, you don’t control your story anymore. Others do. An angry customer on social media. A competitor’s comparison chart. A supplier complaining about late payments. These become the only voices talking about your brand. 

Without your own consistent messaging, customers gradually forget you exist. You drop out of their consideration set. Sales decline. Margins erode. Cash flow dries up. And since cash is oxygen for any business, companies that go silent often fade away entirely. 

Even if you avoid complete failure, the damage is real. Your brand loses relevance. Customers no longer trust you because they don’t hear from you. Meanwhile, competitors fill the void with their own consistent messaging, capturing the attention and wallets that used to be yours. 

Here’s the worst part: reversing this damage takes far more time and money than maintaining visibility would have cost. Once customers forget you, winning them back requires massive investment in marketing and communications—much more than you “saved” by going dark. 

It’s a People Business

Marketing and communications aren’t just for customers, either. They’re equally important for your employees. 

When employees understand your strategy and see how their work contributes to company success, they become your most powerful ambassadors. They know why their work matters. They feel valued and secure. They speak positively about your company to friends, family, and their professional networks. 

The payoff is measurable: better employee retention, stronger talent attraction, lower cost per hire. Your HR metrics improve across the board. 

This becomes even more important during crisis or transformation. Employees who receive consistent, transparent communication feel part of the journey, even through difficult times. They stay engaged and committed. 

Cut internal communications, however, and watch what happens. Uncertainty breeds anxiety. Your best people start taking recruiter calls. Morale drops. Productivity suffers. And once trust erodes, rebuilding it takes far longer than maintaining it would have. 

The Choice Is Yours

So now, are branding, marketing, and communications still costs that should be cut when financials become tight? Or can we agree they’re investments in the long-term success of your business that become even more important during times of crisis, so your company can stand out from the crowd, still selling at high margins even though buyers’ dollars may also be limited? 

At Stanton Chase, we’ve helped organizations find marketing leaders who understand this distinction. Leaders who can articulate why marketing investment matters even when—especially when—budgets are under pressure. Because finding executives who understand marketing as investment rather than cost isn’t just about reviewing resumes. It’s about identifying leaders who’ve proven they can maintain market presence while managing resources responsibly. 

This is the first article in our three-part series on why marketing matters. Click here to read the second article, “The Trust Economy: Why B2B Buyers Are More Emotional Than You Think.” Click here to read the third article, “The Hidden Cost of an Empty Marketing Chair. “ 

About the Authors

Gabriel Kiefer is a Partner at Stanton Chase Düsseldorf with over 10 years of experience in executive search and consulting across Germany. He specializes in placing executive and senior-level roles in industrial, life sciences, healthcare, and technology sectors, supporting both leading German mid-sized companies and global stock-listed corporations. Gabriel joined Stanton Chase after many successful years as a Senior Consultant and Partner at a German executive search company, bringing expertise in providing tailored solutions while leveraging Stanton Chase’s global infrastructure for comprehensive search and consultancy solutions. 

Kathrin Sauter is a seasoned marketing and communications executive with over 13 years of experience building brands into growth engines within complex B2B and technology-driven environments. Most recently serving as Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Communications at MANN+HUMMEL, reporting directly to the CEO, Kathrin has proven expertise in strategic brand development, marketing transformation, and leading teams through change. Currently working as a Senior Marketing and Communications Consultant, she brings deep expertise in B2B marketing, corporate branding, and organizational development to help companies translate technology into purpose.