Marketers’ confidence at five-year high

Marketers are expecting the strongest sales growth in value since 1995 according to the latest Marketing Trends Survey from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

There has also been a turnaround in marketers’ confidence which has lifted the CIM confidence index to 91.8 – its highest level for five years – indicating that the UK economy has bounced back from the “post-millennium hangover” earlier this year.

UK companies are planning for sales growth in cash sales of 8.5 per cent during the current year, compared with the 7.1 per cent growth achieved in the past year.

The strongest sales growth is likely to be in the service sector, with financial and business services expecting double-digit growth.

But confidence in some sectors remains low, with nearly half of all food, drink and tobacco companies describing their sales plans as “unrealistic”.

Spending continues to increase most quickly on Internet and Intranet investment (10.6 per cent) while spending on advertising is set to increase by 3.6 per cent.

But CIM director of marketing Ray Perry warns companies against investing in the Internet at the expense of other marketing activities: “Companies must understand that marketers need additional financial resources to tackle the Internet – simply diverting money from other activities is not a constructive solution.”