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.
