The Chief Marketing Officer Council, a global network of 6,000 chief marketers, recently released the results of a global survey conducted on 600-plus marketers. The report indicates that approximately 60% of the participants intend to shell out more for marketing initiatives, including brand building, promotional items, and promo products. A significant 26% of those surveyed intend to increase spending by 1%-5% in 2011 alone.
Marketing Budgets On the Rise
Another report, the 2011 State of Marketing: Outlook, Intentions and Investments, found that marketers are now beginning to focus, and accordingly spend more, on digital media and online marketing. Comparative research by the CMO Council revealed that of the marketers surveyed, a majority planned to increase their social media budgets by more than 5%. This budget increase could also be allotted to other forms of online marketing such as search engine optimization, mobile initiatives, online videos and banners, and brand building and promo products.Despite these increases, the report states that increased spending on digital media will still make up only a maximum of 10% of marketing expenditure. According to the CMO Council, it is of critical importance that marketers implement an approach that takes advantage of both digital and online marketing tactics. With the effects of these strategies capable of measurement, it’s no wonder these approaches are becoming increasingly popular for brand building and increased sales. This was reinforced by CMO Council’s Executive Director, Donovan Neale-May: “Today’s successful marketing organization is unifying its extended ecosystem, aligning more effectively with business and sales groups and integrating campaign components to drive efficiency and more measurable outcomes.”
In addition to the enhanced brand building tactics and increased use of promotional items, the report also revealed the participants’ plans to enhance customer segmentation and targeting. The CMO Council concluded by saying that marketing, has evolved from simple branding and now impacts many aspects of business operations, including strategic planning and forecasting, business development, pricing, channel management, and even product design.