Finance heads believe marketing investment is needed in recession

Finance directors across the country believe that marketing investment should be strengthened during the economic downturn to benefit their companies in the long run, according to a new report.

The survey by database marketing and customer insight firm KDB reveals that 84% of respondents believe that by reinforcing spend their companies are more likely to enjoy a competitive advantage when the economy begins to recover.

Matt Boot, chief analyst at KDB, says the results show that finance directors do understand the historic importance of marketing through a recession, but only when the money is spent effectively.

He adds that finance directors want to see return on investment and accountability from their marketing departments if they are going to maintain or even boost budgets in the downturn. “Companies have to put their money where their mouth is where marketing is concerned if they really want to emerge from the current downturn in a position to gain ground on competitors,” he says. “That doesn’t mean simply writing a blank cheque to marketing, but it does mean supporting investment in activities that make sense and provide measurable results.”

The survey of 1,000 finance directors at companies of varying sizes in different industry sectors across the UK also found that finance directors from big companies were significantly more supportive of the idea of boosting marketing investment than their counterparts at small businesses.

All respondents at companies that employ 250 to 1,000 people and 98% of those working for companies with more than 1,000 employees supported the idea, compared with 80% of those from businesses with ten employees or fewer and 83% from operations with 11 to 50 employees.

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