Marketers should fear spending review as much as public sector

As we tip-toe towards D-Day for the public sector in the shape of the results of the spending review next month, politicians, chief executives and marketers to a man and woman are all wondering if it will break the already brittle economic recovery.

Before and since the election, a debate has raged as to how far, fast and deep the axe should fall in order to address the monumental deficit without hastening the dreaded “double-dip” recession that would send marketers hurtling back to the dark days of 2008/09 when budgets first froze, warmed and then evaporated.

Of course, budgets and confidence have begun to return since with smiles returning to the faces of direct marketers this year.

Elsewhere, in this email you will find no less of an authority than Mark Thomson, media director at Royal Mail, presenting research that found burgeoning confidence among marketers.

A recent study by the IDM, intended to be a barometer of business to business marketer’s confidence, also found, if not bullishness, then an increasingly defined swagger.

This was in line with the IPA’s last “Bellwether” study on marketers’ confidence, which continued to see an upwardly mobile trend for budgets over the year.

It is clear then that in harmony with the fragile recovery in the economy, marketers have been feeling more chipper for the year to date.

Even more reason then for all marketers to look hard at the outcome of the spending review next month.

Job losses could floor already shaky consumer confidence, the lifeblood for marketers.

The Government needs to balance cuts with measures to stimulate the private sector to enable it pick up the slack caused by the shrunken public purse.

Then marketers, so long deep in the dark fug of recession, can continue to see the light at the end of a long tunnel.

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