Advertising in a recession - save your money?

Short post - two parts actually. The first a quotation from some dead guy by the name of Henry Ford:

"One who stops

advertising to save money

would stop a clock to save time."

The second is from someone who's still very much alive, me. We did a study more than a decade ago about business bankruptcies and the economy. The study revealed that more businesses failed after a recession has bottomed out than during the decline. My experience tells me that part is true. But why? Here's what I see:

When the economy is tanking, every company is conserving cash because they don't know how long it will last or how bad it will be. Solid companies and weak companies look alike to the casual observer (witness the recent collapse of the stock price of companies like GE and Caterpillar). However when the collapse has run its course and the economy begins to recover, the strong companies flex their economic muscles, begin using their cash reserves, and assert themselves at the expense of the weaker companies that have no cash reserves with which to compete. That's when you can tell the difference between strong companies and weak companies - by how they act coming out of a downturn. And one of the primary ways strong companies show their strength is by - you guessed it - advertising that strength. With new products, new marketing initiatives, new services, and new visibility.

So, the question you have to ask yourself is this: do you want to be the taker or giver of market share?

As always, I welcome your comments.