How to market when the market says "no"

The global economy is limping. Again.

According to the World Bank and IMF, 2025 will see the slowest growth since 2008 outside of an official recession. Trade tensions are rising, policy uncertainty remains high, and the word "slowdown" is doing more heavy lifting than it ever asked for. In the US, the R-word (recession) isn’t quite official, but it’s certainly circling the block. And for marketers, that sinking feeling in your stomach isn’t just about the economy (or the leftover burrito you had for dinner the day before payday).

It’s about your job, your pipeline, your sense of professional purpose. When the global mood is “cut costs and conserve", the business of optimism, i.e. marketing, starts to feel almost obscene. Budgets shrink, campaigns stall, creative briefs shrivel and die on the vine in real time. Suddenly, the cheery slogans about growth and momentum start sounding like punchlines. And if your job depends on getting people to buy into a brighter tomorrow, what do you do when tomorrow looks like a bit of a f*cking grey blur?

Welcome! Come one, come all! You’ve got front row seats, to the existential crisis of modern marketing.

At its core, marketing is a belief system. We sell belief in products, in progress, in possibility. We convince people to act on desire, to trust in change, to imagine that their next purchase or platform or partnership will somehow improve their lives. But belief requires confidence, my darlings, and confidence is in short supply. The economy is shaky, AI threatens to replace us, and we’ve all internalised a kind of cultural burnout that makes enthusiasm feel make-believe.

The irony is painful: the industry built on optimism now feels allergic to it. The language of “growth” has become almost suspicious, the phrase “brand love” sounds naïve asf, and the once-invincible marketing mindset - move fast, build buzz, chase innovation - now feels like the behaviour of someone who hasn’t checked their credit card bill in months. In short, it’s kind of like, hard to sell the future, when everyone’s bracing for it.

What’s happening now is more than economic. It’s also emotional.

When fear creeps into the market, it seeps into the mind. People buy less, yes, but they also believe less. They pull inward. They stop trusting ads, influencers, brands, even their own instincts. And marketers, who’ve been trained to chase growth at all costs, have no playbook for this mood. When the world says “no”, our reflex is to shout louder, to discount, to hype, to rebrand the recession as an opportunity. But audiences aren’t fooled. You can’t spin survival.

That’s the uncomfortable truth: in moments like this, the most dangerous thing marketers can do is pretend it’s BAU.

So, what can you do when the market says no?

When your campaign budget is cut in half, your audience has trust issues and your team is quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles?

You don’t need a new marketing strategy. You need a new goddamn philosophy.

1. Go smaller, go deeper. Scale is seductive, but intimacy converts. When people are anxious, they crave stability and connection. Speak directly to your existing customers. Make them feel seen, not sold to. If you can’t reach more people, reach the right ones more honestly.

2. Measure meaning, not just reach. Forget chasing vanity metrics in a climate that doesn’t value noise. Track signals of trust: retention, word-of-mouth, repeat engagement. Growth will come later, belonging will keep you alive now.

3. Honesty is the new persuasion. Everyone’s exhausted by overpromise. Be transparent about what you can offer and why it matters. Drop the jargon, ditch the “disruption”, and talk like a person with a pulse. The marketers who can speak clearly when everyone else is panicking will stand out by default.

4. Reconnect with your "why." These are the basics. And the basics work. Remember why you got into this business in the first place. It probably wasn’t to “drive pipeline” or “maximize conversions.” It was to tell stories, to move people, to help ideas find their audience. When the tactics fail, purpose becomes your compass.

Here’s the quiet upside no one tells you about downturns: when money dries up, meaning matters more.

A slow market forces clarity. You find out what your brand actually stands for, which customers actually care, and which campaigns were just noise dressed as momentum. The world might not be buying, but it’s still listening… and in this climate, a single moment of genuine resonance can be worth more than a quarter’s worth of paid impressions.

The future of marketing isn’t about pushing harder against resistance. It’s about learning to listen when the market goes silent.

The truth is, marketing has always been a little bit delusional.

It asks us to believe we can change behavior, shift culture and rewrite narratives all while operating in an economy that can’t promise stability for more than six months at a time. But that’s also what makes it noble, in its own weird way.

Because marketing, at its best, is an act of faith. It’s saying: “Something here matters, and I’m going to help you see it.”

Just maybe, right now, say it in a way that’s worth hearing.

-Sophie Randell, Writer