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Archive for the ‘Budgets’ Category« Previous Entries Next Entries »The Positive Side of Smaller Marketing BudgetsTuesday, October 13th, 2009 
Many marketers have been feeling the strain this year as their budgets and resources have come under increased pressure and increased scrutiny from senior management. But achieving more with less is not impossible, and can actually have some positive effects… Budget cuts and recessionary demands have resulted in more businesses focusing on marketing accountability and measurement, as well as improved collaboration between marketing and other organizational departments (i.e. finance), according to the fifth annual Marketing Accountability Survey. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) study spoke to 95 senior-level marketers over the summer. Although the small sample size should be noted, some interesting findings include:
Almost half (46%) of respondents are satisfied with the impact of their marketing efforts on sales/ROI, twice as high a response as last year. The survey also highlighted a greater appreciation of marketing efforts by senior management. To find out more about effective marketing strategies in a recession, please click here to read our free e-book.
Market Research In A RecessionWednesday, July 29th, 2009  It won’t come as a big shock that the UK market research sector, like the majority of other industry sectors, isn’t recession proof and has been hit, at least to some extent, by the current recession. The key takeaways from a recent ‘State of the industry survey’ by RSM are as follows:
This particular piece of research got us talking internally and we came up with the following trends that we have seen within our world at B2B International: 1. There are less market research specialists in corporates than ever before Gone are the days when every corporate had a market research manager. Increasingly we are being commissioned by non-market research specialists — marketing managers, product managers, marketing directors and the like. This means that the briefs we receive are sometimes woolly and impossible to achieve (especially in timescales and costs). Timings are a real bugbear within B2B International as we never want to compromise quality although our clients often seem to be being leaned on by their management in terms of timing leaving unrealistic timescales to collect and analyse the findings. However, the recession has resulted in companies becoming keener to understand the pressures their customers are facing – a greater recognition of the interdependence of theirs and their customers’ success. 2. Every job is put out to a long tender list Gone are the days when we used to visit a client to take a brief and proposals were submitted from just three companies. Nowadays clients bash their briefs out to (sometimes) dozens of agencies. The competition has never been fiercer and prices as a result have been driven down with clients sometimes placing too much emphasis on cost rather than quality 3. We need to be increasingly imaginative about research methods Gone are the days when we used to do surveys based on a simple research method. Increasingly we are given complex problems that have to be answered with a range of different research tools. It is not unusual for us nowadays to mix online surveys with telephone surveys and qualitative with quantitative. 4. We are required to be strategic consultant’s as well as data collectors Gone are the days when market researchers simply researched a market. Today, in business to business markets we are expected to be familiar with all the business and marketing frameworks that traditionally were the ground of McKinsey and Bain. 5. We are increasingly required to use multidisciplinary teams Gone are the days when a sole researcher could carry out a market research project from beginning to end on their own. B2B International has brought together a diverse team with specialist skills ranging from pure research backgrounds through to statisticians, computer programmers and consultants that can act in an advisory capacity upon completion of a project As usual, during any recession, research providers who supply quality and value throughout the difficult times will emerge stronger and fitter. However, with organizations continually looking to measure ROI on every pound spent, is the competitive landscape for business to business research changed forever? Recession Clouds May Be LiftingTuesday, July 7th, 2009
The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s latest Marketing Trends survey shows hints of increasing business confidence among UK marketers. While 72% of the 1,223 marketers surveyed still do not think that the UK will completely pull out of recession by the end of this year, the number of respondents believing the situation will worsen over the next year halved – to 34% – compared to the last Marketing Trends survey conducted in autumn 2008. 35% expect business to improve throughout 2009, and more than a quarter (26%) believes the UK economy will improve over the next 12 months, a figure that compares favourably to just 11% in the previous survey. However, almost a third of respondents are concerned over losing their jobs in the next 12 months and 18% of self-employed marketers worry that the recession may force them to close their business this year. Nevertheless, while 2009 is still anticipated to be a tough year overall, there are definite signs that British marketers believe the worst may soon be over. Backing this belief, a survey of global marketers recently carried out by B2B International showed almost half of the respondents (47%) to be feeling optimistic about their own organisation’s prospects over the coming year. Meanwhile, the latest Business Trends report by accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward LLP shows that UK businesses expect the pace of economic decline to slow markedly over the next quarter, supporting the UK Chancellor’s predictions of a recovery starting in Q4 2009. Short-term Strategies In The RecessionTuesday, June 30th, 2009
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has found that two-thirds of marketers have, in response to the current economic environment, shifted their emphasis to more short-term strategies. These were some of the findings of a Brand-Building study of 129 marketers, which took the form of an online survey. Yet in spite of the short-term tactics, marketers are already planning increased activities for when the recession ends. 68% will be increasing their media budgets, 41% increasing social networking/word-of-mouth, and 40% allocating more money to innovation and testing/learning. Almost three-quarters of respondents admitted that they would ideally like to implement these additional marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends. The survey found that few marketing initiatives had been postponed or cancelled outright, but many had suffered from reduced budgets. Those activities that are being maintained during the recession include:
A number of activities have been increased over recent months, including:
When compared to the results of previous surveys, many traditional media channels have suffered:
These results are fairly representative of current sentiment in the wider marketing community. Many organizations are shying away from traditional media and focusing on online opportunities. Indeed, a recent survey by B2B International showed around half of marketers planning to increase their e-marketing spend in 2009, with many stating that online marketing had already proven itself to be a successful strategy in the face of recessionary pressures. More than a quarter were planning increases in their PR activity. On the flip side, around half planned to cut expenditure in the more traditional areas of tradeshows/events and magazine advertising. Click here to read our white paper on Marketing Strategies in a Recession. The ROI Of Market Research – New PodcastTuesday, May 26th, 2009
ROI is an oft-repeated business mantra for any kind of major strategic investment, and market research is certainly no different from other business expenditure in this respect. Market intelligence studies are often commissioned with laudable intentions – principal amongst these being the development and growth of the organisation concerned. However, for all the lofty ambitions and expectation that may be placed behind a market research project, without careful planning and management, the end result can all-to-easily disappoint. A study may fail to target the original objectives from the market research brief or the report may be too far divorced from the actions that will effect real change within an organisation. In effect, the question that companies should ask when commissioning market research is "am I getting my money’s worth?" – A query that should be asked of major investments at any time, not least during a recession. In B2B International’s latest podcast, we broach these very issues: How can we ensure market research delivers value for money? How can this be verified or measured? And, perhaps more fundamentally, what is the value of market research in the first instance? The podcast is based upon a white paper written by Paul Hague and Julia Cupman of B2B International entitled "Making effective business decisions: Measuring & maximising the return on investment of market research". Links to both versions of this paper can be found below:
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