Richard Fouts

Duke Fuqua School of Business released its semi-annual CMO Survey today. An important finding goes against a decades-old trend: In soft economies, marketing is the first to go. 

Not this time.

Over the past 18 months, despite sluggish growth around the globe, marketing budget as a percent of revenue has increased.  Could this signal the CMO’s more active participation in enterprise growth initiatives?

Here are the study’s highlights:

1. Average marketing budget as a percent of company revenue has increased to 11.4% (95% confidence level between 9.3% – 14.4%) – compared to 8.1 % 18 months ago, although growth is a bit slower than a year ago.

2. Internet marketing spending is up by double digit percentages.

3. Social media spending continues to increase, although how well [poorly]  it’s integrated with marketing strategy is unchanged from 18 months ago

4. Poor integration of customer information across marketing channels continues.

5. Marketing employment on the rise.

6. Increase in business unit-specific marketing; small decrease in centralized corporate marketing.

7. Marketing leadership increases in key strategic activities.

8. Spending on marketing analytics to increase 60% in 3 years.

9. Investments in increasing marketing knowledge remain strong, with growth in every category.

This is the report that more marketers heed than many others (especially those sponsored by providers who have an ax to grind) because it’s independent.

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Category: Uncategorized     Tags: digital marketing

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