CIM Publishes Spring Marketing Trends Survey
The latest Marketing Trends Survey from the Chartered Institute of Marketing has revealed that while advertising is still the biggest item in average marketing budgets, its position is being eroded as more resource is devoted to other marketing activities.
Advertising will account for just under 15% of marketing spend on average, which means a larger percentage of marketing budget is spent on it than any other marketing areas including lead generation (12%), CRM (12%), direct mail (11%), field marketing (11%), or internal marketing (7%).
However, the survey, completed for the Institute by Ipsos MORI, reveals that while marketers are planning to increase spending on online marketing in the current sales year by an average of 3.6%, CRM by 2% and public relations by 1.5%, the average amount they spend on advertising will be reduced by 0.2%.
The survey reveals that 90% of marketers stated that they feel marketing is a dynamic and constantly evolving profession, while a similar majority (86%) believe that marketing has unquestionably changed over the past three decades.
Technology is regarded as the main reason for this transformation among those questioned (97% cited it as one of the main three catalysts for change), while change in consumer attitudes is listed by nearly two-thirds (63%) as the key driver, while 45% cited global competition and 36% named the development of customer relationship management.
Two-fifths of marketers say it’s ‘likely’ that their organisation will undertake some marketing activities connected to the London Olympic Games. However, there is a sharp decline in the number of marketers who feel that the Games will be good for the British economy. While in 2006 88% said that the Games would have a positive impact, this figure has now fallen to 73%.
Geoff Hurst, marketing director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, said: “This latest Marketing Trends Survey confirms that our business is not one that stays still. Playing by yesterday’s rules is not an option for the modern marketer – keeping up to date with current thinking and maintaining skills have never been more important.
“It’s interesting to note that a significant majority of marketers are still not making use of the full spectrum of technologies available to help them communicate with customers. In fact, the numbers answering ‘not at all’ when asked how regularly they used podcasts, corporate blogs, mobile marketing and viral marketing have actually increased since the survey was last conducted in autumn 2006.
While traditional marketing techniques will remain important tools for marketers in the future, it will be interesting to see how these figures change when we carry out our next survey.”
CIM: http://www.cim.co.uk