Despite the pandemic, Delaware Valley consumers are expected to spend $270 million on fine jewelry this year. Based on projections from IBISWorld, here's what will be purchased:

• $113 million worth of diamonds
• $40 million worth of watches
• $27 million worth of gold
• $32 million worth of pearls and gemstones
• $47 million in other goods and services

Philadelphia area business owners will now have an easier time capturing a bigger share of jewelry expenditures as a monster competitive force disappears.

This week, Signet, the largest jewelry retailer in the country, announced that by December, it would be closing over 380 stores.  Signet's brands familiar to Delaware Valley consumers include Kay, Jared, Zales, and Piercing Pagoda.

To successfully compete for the void created by fewer Signet stores, local retailers will need to advertise, especially between now and the end of the year. This is when 63% of all fine-jewelry sales traditionally occur.

By any metric, the best way to reach local jewelry buyers is by advertising on Philadelphia radio.

Delaware Valley small business owners are learning that 're-opening' may not be an appropriate word for the challenges they face as the Coronavirus crisis winds down.  A better term might be 're-introducing'.

Since the Governor of Pennsylvania shuttered the state on March 17 to slow the spread of COVID-19, Philadelphia area consumers have discovered new ways to buy the goods and services they need.  It's now the burden of local business owners to lure these customers back. The first step is re-introduction.

In 1922, three local retailers each put a Philadelphia radio station on the air.  These included John Wanamaker's WOO, Strawbridge & Clothier's WFI, and Gimbel Brothers' WIP. Since then, local business owners have used radio advertising to introduce themselves successfully to new customers. Radio has also helped these businesses survive recessions, depressions, world wars, flooding, and blizzards. By any metric, advertising on Philadelphia radio remains the most effective tactic a small business owner can use post-pandemic, as well.

More than 85% of Delaware Valley households own at least one vehicle. 

Pre-pandemic, 76% of workers spent, on average, 66 minutes every weekday in these cars commuting to-and-from their jobs.  

On their way to work, many of these drivers would contribute to the Philadelphia area's $103.4 billion retail economy by visiting the convenience stores, coffeehouses, auto repair centers, gas stations, daycares, grocery stores, or hundreds of other businesses they passed.

At lunchtime, these same cars would take their owners to restaurants, dentist appointments, nail appointments, barbershops, and on an infinite number of other errands.

On the weekends, these vehicles filled the parking lots of hardware stores, furniture stores, car dealers, appliance stores, bowling alleys, movie theatres, and nightclubs, 

Then on March 17, when the Governor of Pennsylvania shut down the state to slow the spread of COVID-19, traffic came to a standstill and so did the spending.

There are strong indications, though, that in the Delaware Valley, roads are filling up again.

Delaware Valley small business owners may perceive the continuation of advertising as a luxury right now. This is especially so when compared to the necessity for covering the costs of utilities, inventory, payroll, and rent.

Before pulling the plug, though, business owners from Doylestown to Cherry Hill must consider the consequences of 'going dark', a marketing term which means to stop advertising.

"According to our analysis, short-term decisions to go dark create significant risk for long-term revenue," says Ameneh Atai, Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Nielsen. "This affects both incremental revenue and base sales."

"Our database of long-term effects models suggests that cutting ad spending for the rest of 2020 could lead up-to 11% revenue decrease in 2021," says Ms. Atai. "It could take three to five years of solid and consistent brand building to recover from an extended dark period of media."

"We have a ton of evidence in our historical analysis," adds Nielsen's Tsvetan Tsvetkov, Senior Vice President of Agency and Advertiser Solutions. "Companies that step away from advertising efforts for a period of time, whether it's a couple of quarters or a full year or longer lose the momentum they have built over time the minute they stop. To recover takes a long, long time."

To avoid the economic risks of going dark, Delaware Valley small business owners need to make sure every dollar spent on advertising produces solid returns.  By most marketing metrics, advertising on Philadelphia radio could prove to be the best option.

Type "PHILADELPHIA REAL ESTATE AGENTS" into Google. In slightly over a half-second, the search will deliver 27,800,000 results. Similar searches for Chesterbrook, Penn Wynne, Ardmore, and West Conshohocken produce a proportional number of returns.

Despite the economic hardships imposed by the Coronavirus crisis on Delaware Valley consumers, the demand for real estate is booming. 

The Wall Street Journal published a trend this week indicating that mortgage applications for purchase a home have achieved levels equal to last year.

According to redfin.com, home buying demand is 16.5% higher now than it was pre-COVID-19 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Redfin attributes this explosive growth in real estate shoppers to two factors, including record-low mortgage rates. The other primary driver is a migration trend from expensive metropolitan areas as buyers hunt for more space at lower prices.

To capture a larger share of the robust market, local real estate agents need to stand apart from the millions of Google results.  Advertising on Philadelphia radio will help accomplish this.  Here's why.

To slow the spread of COVID-19, the Governor of Pennsylvania shut down all but the most essential businesses in the state on March 17. This public safety measure inflicted a severe disruption to the Philadelphia area's $91.8 billion retail economy.

As local small business owners prepare for reopening, each must concentrate on supercharging their cash flows to compensate for many weeks of consumer abstinence. Turning the lights back on and hanging out a welcome sign might not be enough, though, to bring even the most loyal customers back.

Some customers may not return because of personal safety concerns. Other customers may have discovered alternative sources to purchase goods and services.

But, there is one thing every Delaware Valley small business owner can be assured of. Consumers will not return if they aren't aware that a business has reopened.

Advertising is a potent tactic for any Pennsylvania or New Jersey small business that needs to reintroduce itself to local consumers.

“Think you have a great product?” asks the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”

Pay-TV is struggling to survive COVID-19.

Before the onset of the pandemic, Nielsen reported that 77% of Delaware Valley households received their television programs from cable systems, telephone companies, or satellite operators.  That number, however, is plummeting.

Pay-TV providers in the Philadelphia area include Xfinity, Fios, RCN, Hotwire, Dish, Spectrum, and DirecTV.

"Cord-cutting, people dropping their cable and satellite TV subscriptions, pre-dates the onset of Covid-19. But the pandemic is exaggerating the trend, creating deeper issuers for programming that relies on those services for distribution," Eric Savitz wrote last week in Barron's.  This includes non-premium services like ESPN, TBS, TNT, USA, CNN, and Discovery.

"LightShed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield counts a loss of 1.96 million subscribers to cable, satellite TV, and virtual cable services combined in the first quarter," Savitz continued. "This is the worst combined quarterly drop ever, down 6% from a year ago."

Greenfield said in an interview with Barron’s that what is especially sobering is that most of the first quarter activity pre-dated the virus. The numbers are likely to get considerably worse in the second quarter.

In January, Delaware Valley small business owners were in a panic. The unemployment rate was at a record low 3.4%, and there were not enough workers to fill their open jobs. 

As of today, though, Pennsylvania is reporting that at least one-in-four of the state's workforce have lost their jobs for COVID-19 related reasons. Yet, many small business owners are still struggling to find employees.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "For some workers, unemployment benefits are now paying more than their old jobs did. For others, safety concerns or a lack of child care, as most schools and day-care centers remain closed, are making them hesitant to go back."

“That’s going to get in the way of any real recovery,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told WSJ.

The struggle to hire employees creates an additional threat for those Delaware Valley small business owners who received loans under the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program.  

To qualify for the loan forgiveness provision of the PPP, business owners must restore its workforce to pre-Coronavirus levels. This must be accomplished within eight weeks of receiving the monies.

So, just like in January, local small business owners are under pressure to fill open jobs. Advertising on Philadelphia radio is a potent way to attract and hire the needed employees.

Facebook usage has swelled since the onset of the Covid-19. 

According to Nielsen, before the current chaos, 61% of Delaware Valley adults used Facebook each month. This was significantly fewer than were reached by local radio or television each week.

According to the New York Times, however, since the start of the Coronavirus, daily Facebook traffic has increased by 27%. This compares to 33% growth in the amount of time consumers spend listening to local radio during a similar period.

Based on the surge in Facebook consumption, Philadelphia small business owners might be tempted to purchase advertising on the social media platform to augment their regular, free postings. Here are are few facts these businesses should consider before investing.

Business was booming in the Delaware Valley. Then it was not.

Before the chaos brought on by Coronavirus, it had been predicted, based on estimates from the National Retail Federation, Philadelphia area consumers would spend 4.1% more in 2020 than they did in 2019. When the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey shut down their states, however, the expectations of growth for many small business owners were replaced with fights for survival.

As the states prepares to reopen, Philadelphia area small businesses will learn that turning the lights back on and hanging out the welcome sign might not be enough to bring even the most loyal customers back.

Some customers will not return because of personal safety concerns. Other customers may have discovered alternative sources to purchase goods and services.

More likely, though, customers will not come back because a business has lost a valued parcel of real estate: the position at the top of a customer's mind. This is the place where purchase decisions are made.

There is a way to regain top-of-mind status. First, though, it's important to understand why a business can be forgotten so quickly.