Sustainability becomes key to success

Companies are increasingly judging their performance on the "triple bottom line" which includes their social and environmental impact, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

The latest Marketing Trends Survey found two-thirds of respondents say financial performance is still "very important" but a third say environmental and social practices are a major issue. The report also finds that 77% of marketers believe sustainability practices will increasingly affect customers’ buying decisions – just 10% disagreed.

The CIM report finds companies are now spending around 7.6% of turnover on marketing, with smaller companies investing more, at 8.6%.

It is predicted that online and digital will receive a larger share of marketing budgets over the next year, with marketers preparing to increase spend in these areas by 2.7%. Again, smaller companies are investing more heavily and predict a 3.2% increase in online spend.

But, despite the digital hype, 73% marketers never use podcasts and 61% have never used viral marketing.

CIM Marketing Trends Survey.