The recent months have seen changes in marketing practices which we have all been reading about. The Economic situation seems to be driving a huge change in the way people are consuming brands and products. People are re-evaluating their purchases and are trying to garner higher value for every dollar spent. National brands are changing long-used tactics to appeal to a discerning customer. It may seem as though a new era in marketing is emerging.

What in my opinion really is occurring in some cases, is Marketing going ‘back to the basics’. A few things that led me to believe so:

1.       Higher sales of Private label brands - Back in the days, grocers packaged loose goods and branded them with their store label, and people paid for the convenience and value this practice offered. Retailers now, are cashing in on the mood, offering prices that are 25% - 50% lesser than name brands. Consumers are lapping up store brands, benefitting from better value for their buck.

2.       Localization of services and community building – Back in the days, neighborhood bars and bakeries were trusted sources of ‘the daily events’ and gave people a sense community. Amid falling sales, and rising costs, Starbucks is cashing in on this very sentiment, and last month launched a pilot store in Seattle that will sell drinks without the Starbucks logo, feature live music and even serve alcohol. The name of the store is a street name, aimed to position itself as a neighborhood store.

3.       Credit strapped Retailers and Manufacturers cutting back on brand and product variety – Long gone are the days when it used to be a simple task for people to pick a box of cereal at the grocery store. In light of the crisis, brands are finding financial merit in stocking fewer brands and “cleaning up the clutter”, all to the advantage of a budget conscious customer.

4.       Customer Service taking a new meaning –It was as easy as walking down to your local grocer to talk about a grievance or a complaint, before it became necessary to navigate through a maze of customer service representatives, to get yourself heard. Technology has duplicated the former, via powerful tools such as Twitter. We’re all seeing how brands like Comcast and Zappos are using Social Media to fortify their brand, enhance the customer experience and understand their audience, all in real time.

It appears as though in most of these cases, that the behavior is a reaction to effects of the recession. Brands are getting back to personalized, relatable and compact service formats, in a quest to clamp down on falling consumer spending and brand loyalty. If this is what it is then, a tactic to keep their heads above water, is it really going back to the basics? Will these practices revert back to the ones that worked in a better economy? Or will smaller brands emulate the actions of these large ones, to change the marketing landscape for a new era of ‘going back to the basics’? What do you think?