By most measures, corporate America is currently experiencing a down economy. Companies are assessing their options against this background of lower performance and decreased expectations, and they are leaning toward budget tightening.
As an article in The Economist (“Perfecting Pitches,” August 16, 2008) recently pointed out, marketing budgets are often cut first and hardest. Communications, in general, tends to follow this rule because, like other “shared services,” it does not generate a profit. The paradox, however, is that communications, earned ...