Finance directors back marketing investment

Finance directors across the country believe that marketing investment should be strengthened during the economic downturn to benefit their firm 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.

“Nonetheless, companies have to put their money where there mouth is where marketing is concerned if they really want to emerge from the current downturn in a position to gain ground on competitors. 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,” he says.

The survey of a 1,000 finance directors at companies of different 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 firms that employ 250-1,000 people and 98% of those working for companies with more than 1,000 employees supported the idea compared to 80% of those from businesses with 10 employees or fewer and 83% from operations with 11-50 employees.