When you quit marketing you shortchange your reputation, reliability, and the confidence people have in your company. Marketing enables you to hold onto old customers. Many enterprises survive on repeat and referral business. Old customers are the keys to both. When old customers don't hear from you or about you, they tend to forget you.
Marketing maintains morale.
Cutting your marketing seems a signal of failure to those who actively follow your advertising. Marketing gives you an advantage over competitors who have stopped marketing. When we have a troubled economy it can be a superb advantage to a marketing-minded entrepreneur. It gives you a chance to pull ahead and attract some of their customers. Marketing allows your business to continue operating.