The last week has been a hairy old time for the global stock markets, and as ever it caused a shudder of unease amongst the UK business community. News of the impact of the credit crunch on the global finance industry has been widely reported, as has the reigning-in of spend on the high-street, with consumers apparently tightening their belts. But what is less certain at this point is the impact on everything inbetween: in other words, the B2B economy. To my knowledge, there is no research available on the correlation between business spend and consumer spend, and the impact of one on the other. There is bound to be some kind of relationship, but I suspect it’s quite complex. If it’s out there, I’d love to know about it.

So what should we expect? Will business expenditure drop-off at the same rate that high street spending apparently did before Xmas? The last significant downturn certainly decimated the IT sector, but this was largely because of the industry’s close links with the dotcom bubble, and the myriad of unsustainable Web 1.0 businesses. This time around there is no reason to expect a similar impact, and given the growing importance of technology to most companies in all aspects of their business, theoretically investment may hold up relatively well, particularly amongst the large corporates, who have more structured investment plans.

The one group that will probably change their behaviour, however, are the small businesses, who – like the man in the street – feel most exposed when the economy wobbles.

But that certainly isn’t to say that companies should stop all marketing to small businesses (or large ones, for that matter) when the economic outlook becomes uncertain. As research from the consumer world shows, those companies with strong brands and those who maintain marketing dialogue perform best both during and in the immediate aftermath of a downturn.

After all, we still don’t know how serious the current situation is, and how long it will last. Once the big banks sort out their exposure to bad US mortgage debt once and for all, then the supply of credit will improve dramatically and with it the prospects for the economy generally. And when this happens, B2B brands have to be ready. We all hope this is sooner rather than later.