What CMOs Are Saying IV

Marketing dollars get tight, but don’t disappear.

The pressure is on, however, for marketers to contribute to the bottom line. Management is demanding that marketers grow market share and improve operational efficiencies. Read: more accountability.

That is probably why Website development and digital marketing topped the list of agency changes for 2009.

One-half of the global marketers surveyed claimed they were either holding firm on budgets or anticipating increases. Nearly one-third planned small budget increases, and 8% expected increases of more than 10%.

nearly one-half said they would decrease spending, with 19% expecting cuts of more than 15%. 34% of the marketers said they were sharpening focus and reducing spending.

As noted above, however, not everyone shares the relatively rosy outlook of the marketers surveyed by the CMO Council.

2008 China Online Ad Spending

More Internet users than any other country, still low spending.

According to MAGNA, ZenithOptimedia and Bernstein Research, Internet ad spending in China will reach $1.7 billion in 2009.

In 2012, ad revenues are expected to generate $3.5 billion, a 24% compound annual growth rate from 2007.

China’s online ad market pales in comparison to more developed countries, however. In the US, eMarketer estimates that $25.7 billion will be spent online in 2009, and $37 billion in 2012. 

Digital ad spending in China is almost evenly split between search and traditional display and rich media ads, with other channels such as video, classifieds and e-mail making up a steady 6%. By 2012, however, search will overtake display and rich media.

The Bernstein projections closely resemble eMarketer’s in the short term. (eMarketer predicted that online spending reached $1.4 billion in 2008 and will hit $1.95 billion in 2009.) But the similarities end after that, as the firm expects online ads in China to generate nearly $5 billion in revenues in 2012. 

What are CMOs thinking? III

The pressure is on.

In an article in Advertising Age, “Why CMOs Are Gaining Ground in the Recession,” John Quelch, Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, listed the four mainmarketing challenges chief marketing officers (CMOs) currently face: Shifting consumer behavio, Price positioning, Stretching marketing dollars, Embracing digital

Following last week’s article, What Are CMOs Thinking?, here are the results of yet another report documenting the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors of CMOs in tough economic conditions.

Fielded late last year, “Isolating the Marketing DNA: The Essential Skills and Qualities of the New CMO,” fromSpencerStuart, delved into CMOs’ operational concerns.

When asked what attributes were needed to make a CMO successful, 65% replied the ability to impact bottom-line results.

But when asked what a CMO must “own” to be successful, 92% of the executives answered the brand.

The disconnect between the leading answers to the two questions is somewhat surprising, because often branding and bottom-line results are considered if not antithetical, at least rarely allied.

Unsurprisingly, when it came to what a CMO’s effectiveness should be measured against, following alignment with business strategy were profitability and revenues.

It is a complex job, with many pressures, but in the current economic environment CMOs have to be concerned with making money for their organizations.

Yet, as the SpencerStuart report cautioned, “Marketing can help by encouraging the organization to be counterintuitive in a time of financial crisis; rather than scaling back, companies can invest in the areas that will benefit customers.”

And that can mean…spending money.