Marketing dollars always dry up at the first signs of an economic downturn. Because advertising, point-of-sale material, couponing and creative merchandising are often considered expenses (rather than investments); businesses think such cost savings would improve the bottom line. But that is precisely the wrong thing to do. For a convenience store business, this might be a good time to rethink what you are doing to connect with your customers. In fact, this is a good time, as any, to take a second look at what you always thought was a huge expense: Brand Building.

In the early days of branding, where image was everything, building one’s brand was indeed an expensive exercise. Ad agencies were recommending nothing less than investing in icons. They held up Philip Morris’s Marlborough Man, and the Jolly Green Giant as the role models of advertising. But mainstream America could not afford such luxuries then, as they do now. Main street operators, who once fought off the marketing dollars of the promotion-driven Golden Arches and the mass appeal of malls, are now fighting the big-box stores. Life seems unfair –the enemy always has the biggest marketing budget or the lowest prices!

You already know it's a losing game to even compete on price, and your marketing budget is ‘whatever’.

So what are your options? Interestingly, there are many in your brand's arsenal, if you stop thinking of image and focus on experience.

The best way to design a marketing strategy is to build it around what today's customers yearn for. These are not product centric (features and benefits) but customer centric. Customers are increasingly disloyal to brands, and are highly skeptical about conventional advertising, or are so bombarded with information, they consciously screen most of it out. While your competitors may be spending more money and energy trying to breakthrough the clutter –with more ads—you could be engaging the 'never satisfied customer' with guerilla tactics. These are low-investment creative solutions that can be adjusted weekly or even daily, and still be executed to a plan.

Focusing on experience (instead of customer attention) forces us to recognize the key drivers of consumer behavior. Let’s face it. You’re dealing with what one marketing observer called 'technology toned' customers. They may be brand disloyal but they hunger for experiences they demand from phone companies, Internet providers, online brokers and airlines: customization, control, convenience and speed. The secret is to shape your offer and design your communication to address these four needs. Forget everything you’ve heard about demographic targeting. This is emotional targeting at a micro level for a fraction of the cost.

Customization: When a customer pulls into your lot, what does he see? Can she see past the bank of gas pumps and get drawn towards something that tells her she can have her way? Tailor your point-of-sale material so that it let's her know you do have an exciting offer this week for her individual needs. Be creative. Be funny. Be interesting. The harried mum with a kid in a car seat may not seem the likely candidate to lock up the vehicle and haul her toddler in. But what if this was 'Mum's week' and you were giving every mum with a kid a medium sized drink?

What if you tweaked it every day of the week: Mondays towards mums in SUV's; Tuesdays towards Honda drivers; Wednesdays towards White Mini-Vans etc? (The proof of participation could be as simple as checking the vehicle key!) What if your sign was so intriguing and funny that it could make her smile, arouse curiosity and get her to want to be involved?

Control: For the cost of running a few ads on the radio (which may drive traffic) invest the money in building a customer experience another way. Learning how Priceline locked in customers by making them addicted to 'elastic' pricing, give the customer an opportunity to shave off the price of his gas by agreeing to be flexible --doing something for you. Donut and bagel shops have mined the 'frequent flyer' loyalty card, but you can turn it into a power tool for customers oppressed by a volatile gas prices.

Convenience: Even if this seems like a sine qua non, anything a marketer does to reduce the time spent over the transaction, or to increase the reward, creates a brand experience. Training your staff to interact with the customer can be as valuable as other brand-building exercises. While advertisements can only promise a great experience, an employee who walks over to a customer having trouble getting a bag of Cat food into her truck on a hot, muggy afternoon builds equity that money cannot buy. If you have two registers, brand one as the ‘fast track lane –for people with kids, anyone wearing sneakers, people celebrating birthdays etc. Like customization, turn convenience into fun. People will remember your intangible branding this way. Which brings us to…

Speed: The new generation of pumps can become a way to interact with a customer, while shortening the wait time. Can your unit deliver news updates? Can it print out lottery results? Stock quotes? While these new technologies promise to enhance the customer experience without human contact, it should not blind us to the less expensive resources you don't have to install: attitude! What if you guarantee a customer that someone will serve them in less than two minutes or they get 50% off on what they have in their hand while in line? Turn this offer into a branding opportunity. ("Beer in two minutes or it's 50% off"). Put signage over the gas pump, and watch your in-store traffic take off. Customers, even if they are not is a rush, postpone buying decisions if they cannot be sure of what to expect. You can even 'brand' this feature (with a few low-cost posters) by calling it something that addresses the common anxiety among customers. Think traffic signs with a twist!

Be innovative, open and fun!
Then there are other customer-centric ideas you can use to tap into the 'never-satisfied customer'. Given the fact that some customers are going to be price sensitive; give them more reasons to consider your store other than price.

These are price distraction techniques at one level, but they earn you the reputation, goodwill, and top-of-mind awareness that the old, (expensive) brand advertising sets out to achieve in the mainstream media. If you already permit scout troops and church organizations to hold car washes, encourage that customer base to expand the use of your address.

Think outside the proverbial box. The local community is always looking for locations to hold pancake breakfasts, book fairs etc. But you have to give them the cue and make them feel welcome. Write to the community non-profit organizations (the library has these lists) inviting them to use your venue. You will find them doing some marketing for you with pre-event flyers, and banners outside your store.

E-commerce is pulling people towards the older models of community interaction. In Japan, 7-Eleven stores are popular drop-off locations for items people order on the Internet. Young people, who don’t have credit cards and order online, can pay for the item at the store! Turn your c-store into your community’s PO Box, chat-room and coffee shop.

Customers want to feel less anonymous, and want to be pampered --even when carrying out mundane chores such as picking up that gallon of milk. Give them a bulletin board to post their own networking interests. Make it their hub, not your store and build strong brand loyalty.

Make it fun inside. The biggest role model of fun as a ‘brand experience’ is, of course, Southwest Airlines. No special effects, no fancy in-flight features, no bribes. Just allowing the flight view to entertain customers turns a mundane, no-frills flight into something that no amount of cool ads could achieve. The aircraft is not the brand. The real branding takes place when the doors close for take off. Branding in the media is often wasteful. Branding the experience requires less of an investment and more of a commitment. If at all, it’s a strategic investment and will never fail to pay off.