A good marketing plan is more important in a tough climate to gives businesses the edge over their competitors, says the head Perth advertising, marketing and branding agency Braincells.

The company’s Managing Partner and Creative Director Jeff Champtaloup will run businesses through tactics and tips for strategic branding at the Open for Business Marketing workshop on November 9.

“It’s more important than ever in these economic environments to be talking about reputation, quality, service and all the elements that make up a cohesive brand,” he says.

“The economic climate makes people re-evaluate all their suppliers because they are trying to adjust their costs as well. That’s the main driver.”

Champtaloup says there’s no particular time a business should stop doing its own marketing and call in a team of professions.

“You are never too small to get professional advice,” he says.

“It doesn’t mean it has to be hugely expensive but it can give you a competitive advantage. It always pays to reflect on what it is about your business that makes it different and have a compelling case to put to a potential customer.

“We get people who are just starting and want a marketing plan, they haven’t even started driving revenue. Then we get people with $50m to $100m turnover who, strangely enough, don’t have a marketing plan.”

Champtaloup, who’s been in the industry since 1982, says one of the most interesting cases he’s worked on was for the British Sausage Company.

“It was a good turnover business but they were struggling to get their message and their plan right,” he says.

“As an owner operator, they don’t have a marketing department and we just tidied up their message and their story and it’s been very successful.”

Turnover has increase 30 to 40 per cent in the last three years.