Marketing Budgets Rise Again, Says Bellwether

UK marketing budgets were revised up for the second successive quarter, according to the Q4 IPA Bellwether survey - despite a fall in business optimism to levels not seen since 2008.

The latest Bellwether survey reports that 20% of firms have increased their marketing budgets, compared with 19% reporting a decrease - a net balance of 0.6% although well down on the 3.4% reported in Q3.

Marketing executives' confidence in the industries in which they operate has fallen to an 11-quarter low: here the net score is -44.9%, down from -23.3% in Q3. Additionally, execs reported that financial prospects for their own companies had deteriorated for the first time since Q1 2009.

According to provisional survey data, budgets for 2012 nevertheless look set to rise relative to actual spend in 2011, although the planned increase is weaker than in any year since 2008.

Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit and author of the Bellwether, states: 'It is encouraging to see that companies are planning to raise their marketing spend in 2012 despite seeing their financial prospects for the next three months falling to the worst since the height of the financial crisis in early 2009. It seems that many companies are looking to fight the prospects of a challenging year ahead with increased promotional activity.'

Web sites: www.ipa.co.uk and www.markit.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.