The Marketer, the official magazine of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, has reported how the recent recession forced many marketers to change their product and service offerings.

Following the spring wave of its Marketing Trends Survey, the CIM has revealed that 57% of marketers surveyed claim their business has had to adapt its product or service due to the economic climate. This is an increase of 11% in 12 months.

And, disappointingly, optimism about the state of the UK economy has fallen since the previous wave of the survey. Six months earlier, 51% of those surveyed expected the economy to become stronger in the coming year; this figure has now fallen to 43%. Seventeen percent actually predict that the economy will deteriorate.

On a slightly more positive note, however, almost half (48%) of marketers questioned expect a better year ahead for their own businesses.

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Marketing departments were often among the first to feel the strain last year as the global recession took hold. Redundancies, reduced budgets and extra pressure to demonstrate ROI were commonplace. But, while marketers were trying to show how their roles made a difference to their company’s bottom line, it would seem that the figures are now speaking for themselves.

According to a new study by VisionEdge and Marketo, Measuring Marketing Performance, marketing is doing a better job of contributing to an organisation’s bottom line. 39% of respondents in the online survey of 423 business executives and marketing professionals this spring, agreed that marketing is doing a good job contributing to the financial condition of the business. This figure is up from only 19% last year. As in last year’s study, 47% of respondents feel the link between marketing activities and business goals is clear.

However, only 27% of respondents said marketing is effective at forecasting its ability to impact business goals. 41% agreed that marketing is good at improving its efficiency.

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.”

 
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.