The CMO Council has released its 2008 Marketing Outlook survey results. The survey included "800 senior marketers on a wide range of topics including planned investments, organizational changes, process improvements and performance indicators." According to the CMO Council, "The annual audit undertaken by the CMO Council, and sponsored by Deloitte Consulting LLP and Marketo, found spend levels mostly holding steady or trending upward in 2008. However, many marketers say they are frustrated and stymied by organization cultures, senior management mindset, and insufficient budgets."
Key findings include:
- 37.6 percent of respondents say annual budgets will not change in 2008, while 33.1 percent expect to increase spend by up to five percent, and almost 10 percent say their budgets will grow between six and 10 percent. Only 7.6 percent expect to see budget increases greater than 11 percent.
- When asked how they tracked and measured return on marketing spend, nearly 20 percent of marketers said they did not, and 34 percent said they were planning to introduce a formal ROI tracking system.
- Quantifying and measuring the value of marketing programs and investments remains the top challenge in the year ahead, report some 53 percent of survey respondents. Other key priorities include growing customer knowledge, insight and conversations, as well as upgrading the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing groups.
- Marketers reported significant agency turnover in 2007 with advertising (41 percent), web design (38 percent) and public relations (26 percent) firms most frequently changed in 2007.
The 12 leading areas of marketing dollar allocation in 2008 are expected to be:
- Strategy and branding
- Events and trade shows
- Operations
- Direct marketing (including telemarketing, mailings, email)
- Sales support
- Online marketing (web site, SEO, SEM, viral, podcasts/blogs, communities)
- Advertising
- Market research
- Systems
- Merchandising and promotions
- Public and analyst relations
- Customer data integration and analytics
An exectuive summary of the report is available for free from the CMO Council. The full report is $199.00
Discussion
By Joe Rickard on Jan 23, 2008
Isn't it amazing, that given the tough environment to obtain marketing dollars for new programs in most large companies, there are still 20% of the responders that do not track ROI at all and that 34% are now only putting in place a formal ROI tracking program. This has always and will continue to be an opportunity for agencies and printers to help marketers get their budgets and programs approved.
By Thaddeus B Kubis on Jan 28, 2008
My firm, NAK Marketing & Communications, has for over 28 years provided documented ROI programs for a variety of verticals. Over the last few years the ability to track results has become open to all for nearly any budget or need, I feel the lack of a clear understanding of these new options may contribute to the lack of use. We are currently offering these programs using superior creative and online tracking to firms in the six key verticals. Thad