By Russ Klein,  CEO, American Marketing Association

This is our time. It’s a time for our inner angels to emerge and become our best selves.

Surely you have all seen many of the important cautionary checklists and best practices to keep you and yours safe and put the COVID-19 virus behind us, not knowing how much time that will take.

This is not intended to be a source for information of that type. Such critical information is better left to the experts.

What I hope to do is share a forthright sense as to how your American Marketing Association is meeting this challenge. The AMA is open and at your service. Our teams are busily operating remotely with customers and stakeholders every day.

I know I speak for the AMA board of directors and the AMA Support Center staff when I say our hearts go out to each and every one of you. The fears and worries over both health and economic well-being are heavy.

The AMA’s #1 priority has been and will always be the welfare of our people. Next to that, we remain open for business and resolute in delivering on the AMA mission of knowledge, community, and service to the individual marketer. The word “essential” is understandably being used often in these times. You may know the vision to which the AMA aspires is to be the essential community for marketers.

The AMA has endured for over 80 years through WWII, Vietnam, 9-11, the War Against Terrorism, more than a dozen recessions, eight since 1980, not including the birth of the AMA on the heels of the Great Depression. The AMA has always found a way forward and the AMA will continue to be the preeminent lifelong professional development resource and community for marketers.

I have recently written, coincidentally, about the impact of an emerging trend called “anti-consumption” on the worldwide GDP; given that consumer spending is more than ¾ of the U.S. GDP and the majority of GDP around the world. We are now seeing what a proxy for severe reductions in consumption looks like.

Demand will come back. Like every other enterprise, we are evaluating our options for operating at a reduced cost basis in order to endure the climate in which we find ourselves. But like all climates, the weather will change. The AMA seeks to make the best decisions we can with our employees, customers, and stakeholders in mind. Not in all my years have I seen a good decision made from anger or fear. Cool heads prevail and it will be our collective leadership that walks the world into its newly created future.

We hope you will join us, as marketers will be needed, more than ever, at all levels to rekindle growth and recovery of the lost economic value and financial stability across every community on the planet.

The AMA was already amidst an epic transformation, and perhaps these times will serve as a catalyst to move even more swiftly into our future state in service to you.

Now more than ever, your goal to sharpen your employable skills, credentials, and personal growth will define the role you play in a post-COVID-19 world. We will be there for you…for the next 80 years and beyond.

I want to thank you for letting the AMA touch your world. And when that inner angel comes out of you during these demanding times, invite her to stay.

About the AMA:

The American Marketing Association states they are “building the essential community for marketers. Members of this association are dedicated marketers who work, teach and study in the field and have a passion for advancing our industry.”