Should you find yourself with a smaller marketing budget and need to prioritize your efforts, start here:

- Own your back yard - make sure that your marketing is heaviest close to home. Consumers want to deal with brands they know the best during a down economy.- Focus on your most profitable and regular customers. Someone is trying harder than ever to steal them.

- Get aggressive with PR. Earned media is more trusted than paid media and can be a heck of a lot cheaper to obtain.

- Make every opportunity work for you, including your sponsorships. If a sponsorship doesn't directly support your marketing strategy, revise what you're doing or drop it altogether.

- Eat from the other dog's bowl. You have competition that has drastically cut back on their marketing. Make them pay.

• And remember, whatever marketing programs you do decide to pursue, put the necessary resources behind them so that they can succeed. In any economy, it's a bad idea to spread your efforts too thin - you'll be everywhere and nowhere at the