Brand Mix

Based on all the recent news, what percentage of marketing executives do you think would be expecting to work with lower marketing budgets next year? 100%? 90%?

This year's Top Marketing Trends for 2009, a survey of the members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) conducted by Anderson Analytics, says that, in fact, only 50% of marketers will be working with lower budgets. And three quarters of those surveyed think that R&D and use of Market Research will either stay the same or increase.

Dig a little deeper into the numbers and you can see that the recession is having an impact. 44% of those surveyed are either reducing staff or not filling open positions and availability of credit is the marketing buzz word or trend with the biggest increase in terms of its importance.

The focus is very much on the basics. The most important concepts: customer satisfaction, customer retention, marketing ROI and brand loyalty. At the same time, buzz words that these executives are most tired of hearing about are: Web 2.0, social networking and social media.

The mood perhaps best summarized from this quote from an open-ended response: "In this economy, too many people are trying to shrink their way to success - cutting faster than the next person. I think its critical to go on offense while the competition is hiding. Finding inexpensive ways to gain competitive advantage and grow share is critical to longer term success when the economy starts to recover."

Full survey results are at: www.mengonline.com/visitors/newsroom

About MENG
MENG is an networking community of senior level marketing professionals. I've been a member for the last four years. To learn more, visit www.MENGonline.com.