Archive for the ‘Economic Crisis’ Category
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
B2B International’s consistent growth continued in 2009 despite the difficult economic environment. The company’s turnover increased by 10% and is now approaching the £3.5 million mark (over US$5 million). B2B International has experienced year-on-year growth in every year since its formation in 1998.
“2009 was a challenging time throughout the market research sector” reports Financial Director Matthew Harrison. “Budgets in some industries were cut, and some of our clients were forced to delay projects due to the economic uncertainty. However, the main trend in 2009 was a change in the type of business we conducted. Many clients moved away from international market assessment studies towards more ‘defensive’ research such as customer satisfaction surveys. Towards the end of the year, however, this trend was reversed, and early 2010 has seen huge interest in our Chinese and wider Asian offering.”
Looking forward to 2010, Managing Director Nick Hague is optimistic about the prospects for B2B International. “It is clear that our clients across Europe, North America and Asia are feeling more positive about the future and there has been a significant upturn in enquiries and commissions since around September 2009. Our proximity to clients and research respondents across three continents means that we are ideally placed to take advantage as optimism returns.”
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Asia, B2B News, Credit Crunch, Customer Satisfaction, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Growth, Market Assesment |
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Recently released figures from mainland Europe show that some parts of the European market research industry found 2009 to be a difficult year.
Market research revenues in Germany fell by 5% last year, according to figures provided by 151 German agencies to industry publication Context – the total revenue of those taking part amounting to €2.08 billion.
According to Context, fewer agencies agreed to provide figures for 2009 than did for 2008, probably because of disappointing results. Of the agencies that did take part, 54% reported a fall in revenue and 17% saw a rise.
In spite of staff cuts at many agencies, the total number of permanent employees in the German market research industry was actually up overall – yet revenue per employee was down for the third year running.
Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, market research revenues were estimated to be down 4% last year, according to industry association Simar. Based on preliminary figures from 22 research agencies in the country, 2009 total revenue was put at Kc2.2 billion (£73.2 million).
Brighter news for 2010, though, with predictions that the industry will return to 2008 levels (Kc2.3 billion or £76.6 million). Most agencies surveyed expect their revenues this year to be the same or higher than they were in 2009.
Posted in
Credit Crunch, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Market Research |
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Monday, January 4th, 2010
A new survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has found UK marketers to be ‘quietly confident’ about the UK economy and their companies’ prospects over the next year.
The survey of 1,200 marketers discovered that 51% of respondents think business will improve over the next 12 months; just 16% expect conditions to deteriorate.
In terms of the marketing activities felt to offer the greatest return on investment, CRM topped the pile with 21% of marketers feeling it delivers the best return. 12% opted for online advertising, 11% chose email marketing, and a further 11% felt public relations offered the greatest ROI. Advertising (excluding online) was considered to offer the least return on marketing investment.
36% of the respondents said that the economic downturn had created new business opportunities for their company – a figure which rises from 28% in the previous study six months ago.
All in all, sales performances and marketing spend appear to be on the up, with redundancies going down, all of which is positive news. However, a word of caution – there’s still a good way to go before the figures return to the levels of before the economic crisis began.
Posted in
Credit Crunch, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Marketing |
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Friday, May 1st, 2009
In her latest Thursday Night Insight, Chrissie Douglas highlights the sheer pace and scale of economic change in the UK (the so called credit crunch), how this has completely changed our perceptions of things that we have always taken for granted (i.e. that our money is safe in the bank!), and the fact that market research is now perhaps more important than ever to keep in touch with what exactly is going on out there.
Let me start by telling you about my banking experience in the last six months. After ten years of riding the property boom we sold our house and put the proceeds in the safe hands of our family bank – Royal Bank of Scotland, whilst waiting for our next dream move. The months passed and as the property market began to decline we felt great in the knowledge that our secure pot would actually buy more as time went on. We thought we were playing it by the book. We’d made some money and we’d put the proceeds away safely in the bank with no risk – just as we’d always been told to do (”after all, your money is always safe in the bank”).
This all changed in October last year with news reports that British banking giant Royal Bank of Scotland was about to collapse. The share price had fallen from over £2.50 to 40p (a fall of 84%!) in a matter of days and was on the verge of going under. We had to move quickly. A review of the alternatives revealed that the only 100% safe option for savings was now the Post Office (owned by the Bank of Ireland), following the Irish government’s pledge to guarantee 100% of all savings in Irish Institutions. So the money was safe again, or so we thought. Just after Christmas, amidst continuous press reports of financial doom and gloom, we noticed that the Irish economy was worst hit and on the verge of bankruptcy. The promise of their 100% safety on savings was not worth the paper it was written on (they would not have the funds to back up this guarantee if bankruptcy occurred). With the hysteria surrounding the bankruptcy of the Iceland economy and the loss of savers’ deposits in Icesave still fresh in our minds, we moved the money back to RBS where incidentally it would have been safe all along (in the meantime RBS had become 75% owned by the British government).
The point of telling this story is to highlight the rapid scale and pace of change, and that things that you had always taken for granted are not necessarily so in the current climate. The term ‘credit crunch’ has become part of our everyday vocabulary but, until it hits you on a personal level, I don’t think you appreciate the nature of the current financial situation in the UK. Things are changing very quickly and it is difficult to keep up.
A quick review of recent headlines highlights this point. For example:
- The 2009 Sunday Times Rich List suffered its biggest annual fall since it was first compiled 21 years ago.
- Unemployment is forecast to reach 3.3 million next year (possibly 5 million in the next few years!) – the highest since the early 1980s and at any time since comparable records began in the early 1970s.
- The UK has just announced its biggest budget deficit in peacetime history and the steepest downturn in the economy since the Second World War.
- Last September the Dow Jones recorded the biggest single-day point loss ever.
There are many more examples but the common theme is that economic decline seems to be on a bigger scale and is changing faster than ever before. Nobody knows what is going on. Nobody knows what will happen next. All we do know is that we have to carry on and plan for the future as we have always done.
This brings me back to the topic of market research. In this current environment it would be understandable to remove market research from your list of top priorities. It may be hard to justify expenditure on something that may be out of date soon after completion (given the pace and scale of change, last year’s market research may already be out of date). However, companies still need to make informed decisions on future direction. I would argue that market research is actually now more important than ever. What we really need is continuous customer monitoring that is cheaper and has a quick turnaround. Luckily with the aid of new technology, market research techniques have come on leaps and bounds and now enable us to keep our nose to the ground. For example, e-surveys, online focus groups, internet panels and bulletin boards are all providing us with the ability to keep up and keep in touch.
For more information on how B2B International can help you stay in touch, please call one of the B2B teams on +44 (0)161 440 6000 or +1 914 761 1909.
Posted in
Banking, Chrissie Douglas, Economic Crisis, Online Focus Groups, Online Research, Online Surveys, Thursday Night Insight |
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
B2B International recently hosted an online survey for Julia Cupman on marketing strategies in the current economic environment as a part of her further studies. This unique piece of research provided insights into how marketing professionals are responding to today’s recessionary pressures.
The survey yielded 396 responses from a plethora of organisations representing all industrial sectors, many b2c sectors and most geographies, and which included some of the largest corporates in the world.
The research study provided rich insights on the impact of the recession and how organisations are responding to the current business environment. Four out of ten respondents said the effect of the recession has been very significant. As might be expected, national and overseas sales have been affected, investment has been cut back, plants have surplus capacity and there are cash-flow constraints.
Nevertheless, around a half of organisations stated that they are optimistic about the economic outlook over the next 12 months. There is a hint that investment in marketing works, given that 58% of organisations with a higher-than-average spend on marketing were optimistic, versus only 44% with a lower-than-average marketing spend.
The most common response to the current economic environment has been cutting costs, followed by organisations (re)aligning their focus from a wider offering to core products and services.
29% of respondents stated that marketing is playing a big role as a weapon to fight the recession and there is currently more emphasis on value marketing, finding new opportunities in different industry sectors and channels to market.
Click here to read a full synopsis of this study.
Posted in
B2B Marketing, Business Decisions, Credit Crunch, Economic Crisis, Julia Cupman, Marketing, Recession |
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