UK marketers quietly confident about next 12 months

Optimism has recovered strongly since the low point of last year’s survey, said CiM, and the first signs of optimism already seen in the previous wave six months ago appear to have been consolidated.

The more positive outlook is backed up by the financial conditions of the companies surveyed, which have improved compared to the previous wave: sales performances are up, marketing spend is up, redundancies are going down.

However, those figures are far from where they were before the economic crisis. It seems that the recession has left many companies weaker and any recovery is proving slow and difficult, with many still struggling.

David Thorp, director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing, said: “2010 will certainly be an interesting year for marketers, with the continuing uncertainty about an economic recovery, the UK general election and an ever-growing presence of digital and social media.

“It’s good to see that marketers are responding to customer needs by changing their products and services. For now, marketers are wisely concentrating their spend in the most effective activities, and still see the need to invest in training. As we move into the New Year, I’m convinced this more professional approach will stand them in good stead when the economy fully recovers.”

When asked whether they thought that business would improve or get worse over the next 12 months, around half (51%) say they expect it to improve against 16% who expect business to get worse. This improvement has been evident since the most difficult period, in autumn 2008, when nearly as many marketers (27%) thought their own companies’ prospects were declining as thought they were improving (29%).

There appears to be a creeping recognition that organisations need to adapt in order to survive and prosper in the current environment. Nearly three-quarters of marketers (72%) agree that there has been a fundamental shift in their customers’ current behaviours and spending patterns since the start of the recession.

Over half (53%) of marketers say that the recession has forced their company to change its products and/or services – an increase on the proportion stating this in spring 2009.