The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre recently launched a marketing campaign to get rid of spare meeting rooms during the day.

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The TenOnCall campaign encourages potential customers to just walk in off the street and use a meeting room with no prior bookings. It was designed to serve an untapped, just-in-time market where the lead time is often very short. Think of businessmen needing to string together a quick meeting with consultants to meet a 24-hour deadline.

It’s obvious that if you’re in a business that holds inventory, be it physical or virtual, you have to start to think about how to to “get rid” of your “spares” (and profit).

Lots of businesses practice this, in different forms:

• Telcos market special promotions to push their off-peak hours — the unearthly hours between 1am to 6am when calls / SMS are usually dirt cheap
• Airlines hold last-minute Internet promotions to get rid of their unbooked seats
• Fast food restaurants offer special discounts for patrons during the sleepy business hours of 3pm to 5pm

So, here’s another recession marketing tip:

Search for the “spares” in your business & find a way to sell it off quickly!