While many reports suggest the sky is falling for marketers, a large number of top-level executives feel that their jobs and much of their staff’s jobs are safe. What’s more, the majority do not anticipate cutting their marketing budgets.
 
The CMO Council interviewed 659 global senior marketers online between mid-January and March 2. Overall, it found that marketers are not planning major restructuring, head-count reductions or wholesale agency terminations this year.

More than half (56.7 percent) do not feel their jobs are at risk and 20.6 percent simply are not sure. More than a third (38 percent) plan to keep their teams intact and 26 percent expect to add staff.

“There was not as much panic about job security that we thought there would be,” said Liz Miller, vp, programs and operations at the CMO Council. “The big story for the marketing community is it is not about budget slashing; it’s about budget reallocation. Marketers are looking to better support the sales team, drive business growth and engage the individual customer.”

Twenty-one percent of marketers reported no change in budget while 29 percent expected to increase their spending this year.

Not everyone agrees with these findings however. Marc Babej, partner at marketing consultancy Reason Inc., said, “Marketing budgets in many, if not most categories, are subject to cuts and in many cases they are deep cuts. That’s just the reality. Marketing positions are being cut too, absolutely . . . People are putting on a brave face.”

The leading business factors or marketing forces that will influence how dollars are spent this year include: Setting clear goals and tracking deliverables (per 61 percent of marketers), improving alignment and integration with sales and channel groups (44 percent) and improving operational visibility, controls and accountability spend (36 percent).

“It’s not about window dressing this year,” said Miller. “Marketers need to stop looking at how to refresh our brand, change our logo or what we mean to consumers. This year they don’t have the millions to do that. It’s how do you do it faster, better and more efficiently with less cash to waste on things that don’t work. You need to better support your sales team because they need leads, that’s the bottom line.”



There is a very clear shift in spending from traditional media to digital. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of respondents said they were increasing their interactive spending, 62 percent were increasing search marketing while the same number (62 percent) said they were increasing investments in social media. “Social media, search and SEO will be hot topics in the coming year,” said Miller.

In the offline world, print is going to get hit the hardest as 37 percent said they were cutting print spending. TV (-19 percent) and radio (-18 percent) followed.

While marketers seem satisfied with their traditional agencies, it’s the digital agencies that need to worry. Of those who are expecting to change agencies, 41.9 percent said their key area of focus are Web design and development, 28.7 percent will reexamine their interactive marketing and 27.4 percent were considering shifting public relations firms.
 
Marketers top marching orders from their bosses are: Growing and retaining market share (48 percent), lowering costs and improving efficiencies (44 percent) and improving customer insight and retention (33 percent).

The top factors affecting marketers are customer anxiety and cutbacks (49 percent) and slower, more complex selling cycles (38 percent). The top frustrations were: Insufficient budget (43 percent), the organizational culture (37 percent) and senior management mindset (33 percent).

Overall, “We’re coming out of a long phase where the wind was in our favor,” said Babej. “When they are in your favor you don’t need to be particularly smart to be somewhat successful. In these conditions, you need to be a lot smarter than before.”