Marketing leaders report their most positive outlook since the recession hit six years ago, according to new results from The CMO Survey. When asked to rate how optimistic they are about the overall U.S. economy on a scale where 0 is least optimistic and 100 is most optimistic, current reports are 69.9 compared to February 2009 levels of 47.7.
This 46% increase is built on related reports that marketing leaders expect all customer indicators to improve in the next year. These include customer acquisition, customer growth (increased volume and increased purchase of related products and services), customer retention, and new customer entering the market. To top off this good news, price is predicted to be less important than superior product quality, excellent service, and a trusting relationship with companies.
Marketers are spending against this positive outlook. Specifically, marketing budgets are expected to increase 8.7% in the next year. Compared to the half of percent marketing leaders reported in February 2009, their confidence in markets is very clear.
What are marketers spending on? This is a four part story. First, digital marketing is expected to grow by 14.7% next year compared to a negative growth rate of 1.1% for traditional advertising (outside of the web). Second, marketing spend on mobile is expected to almost triple from 3.2% to 9% of marketing budgets in the next three years. Third, marketing spend on social media is expected to increase 126% over the next five years, from currently 9.9% of marketing budgets to 22.4%. Finally, marketers will spend more on marketing analytics, which currently account for 6.4% of marketing budgets. This is expected to increase 83% to 11.7% in three years.
Interestingly, hiring in marketing is not growing at the same pace with marketing leaders reporting only a 3.5% increase in marketing hires. One reason for this is that companies are hiring outside agencies and consultants to do some of these marketing tasks. For example, companies currently use outside agencies for 19% of social media activities which is an increase over 17.4% from just one year ago.
Sponsored by the American Marketing Association, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and McKinsey, Inc., The CMO Survey collects and disseminates the opinions of top marketers in order to predict the future of markets, track marketing excellence, and improve the value of marketing in firms and in society. For a complete set of results, visit http://cmosurvey-stage.fuqua.duke.edu/results/