CIM survey reveals optimism about marketing prospects

Marketers remain “surprisingly” bullish about their own organisations’ prospects despite becoming increasingly gloomy about the UK economy, according to the latest research from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

The report, published in today’s Marketing Week, reveals that more than a third of marketers believe the UK will be in recession in 2008. The number of marketers who expect general economic conditions to worsen over the next 12 months has risen substantially since the previous survey in September last year, from 40% to 57%.

But they are optimistic about the performance of their companies, with 39% confident business for their organisation will improve over the next 12 months, 41% saying it will stay the same and only 17% believing conditions will worsen.

Spending on marketing continues to rise, accounting for an average of 7.7% of an organisation’s turnover, up from 6.6% in the last survey. Among small businesses the figure was 8.6% for those with turnover under £1m, and 8.8% for those with turnover between £1m and £10m.

Only 10% of marketers expect a cut in the size of their organisation’s marketing function, with almost a third suggesting staff numbers will increase.

Ipsos Mori polled more than 2,000 marketing professionals between March 27 and April 14 for the survey. CIM undertakes the Marketing Trends survey twice a year.