What promises to be the longest and deepest global recession since the 1930s took many marketers by surprise. What appeared first as a crisis affecting the US home mortgage market soon morphed into a global financial meltdown and the evaporation of consumer credit.

Given an average household debt in the US of 130 per cent of annual household income, it was inevitable that a downturn in consumer confidence would follow, along with a substantial reduction in consumer spending, which accounts for 72 per cent of US gross domestic product. How should marketers, few of whom are experts in macroeconomics, respond to these conditions?