20096th edition

20096th editionApril

The Yearly Marketing SurveyAn initiative by:

In collaboration with

Supported by

This booklet and its content are copyright protected. Text and figures cannot be reproduced without permission of The House of Marketing. Short quotes from the text are allowed, on the condition that the source is mentioned as “The House of Marketing (www.thom.eu)”.

For more information or questions, please contact:Philippe Ruttens, Marketing & Knowledge Manager, on +32 (0)478 91 61 92, philippe.ruttens@thom.eu

If you wish to organize a presentation of the 2009 Yearly Marketing Survey for your organization or need an article about the survey results, please contact us too.

Donkere wolken, back to the basics en een ethisch reveil

Het is weer de tijd van het jaar. De resultaten zijn bekend van de jaarlijkse enquête van The House of Marketing bij deze keer meer dan 1000 Belgische marketeers, die in december 2008 en januari 2009 de vragenlijst hebben ingevuld. Zoals gewoonlijk en begrijpelijk zijn business-to-business marketeers sterk vertegenwoordigd (45% van de respondenten) in vergelijking met uitsluitend business-to-consumer marketeers (17%). Ook zoals gebruikelijk werden de traditionele vragen naar trends, buzzwords en prioriteiten gesteld, maar anders dan de vorige jaren lag in de vraagstelling erg veel nadruk op de economische situatie, en de consequenties ervan voor het marketingvak in België.

Wat onmiddellijk opvalt in vergelijking met de vorige “vette jaren” is de ingrijpende impact die het economische klimaat op het gemoed en de verwachtingen van de marketeer lijkt te hebben. In vorige jaren werd wel eens gemeld dat er meer zou moeten gebeuren met dezelfde mensen, maar in het algemeen zat er in de verwachtingen van de marketeers een positieve trend. Dit jaar is dat radicaal anders.

De door The House of Marketing berekende “confidence index” die over de voorbije jaren heen vrij stabiel bleef, laat voor 2009 een diepe duik zien.

De respondenten voorzagen voorlopig nog geen vermindering van de marketingteams, maar wel minder projecten en minder budget. Vrijwel iedereen verwacht drastische budget cuts, gemiddeld met 23%. Bijna de helft verwacht een

Voorwoord door Patrick De Pelsmacker (Prof. Dr. Marketing – Universiteit Antwerpen)

daling van het mediabudget – een netto-daling, geen verschuiving naar andere marketinginvesteringen. Vooral ICT en financiële instellingen voelen zich bedreigd. Algemeen verwacht men een hogere prijsgevoeligheid, uitstel van aankopen, en een druk op de prijzen, hoewel bijna twee derden vindt dat hun producten uniek zijn, en dat de klanten er een premium willen voor betalen. Niets nieuws onder de recessiezon dus. Marketeers reageren zoals iedereen in een economische recessie die razendsnel om zich heen grijpt: met een dalend vertrouwen in de toekomst, het besef dat er minder te verkopen zal vallen, en dat er voor die inkomsten harder zal moeten gewerkt worden dan voorheen.

Hoe reageren de marketeers op deze donkere wolken? Naar eigen zeggen met “back to the basics”. De belangrijkste vijf uitdagingen blijven dezelfde als vorig jaar, maar het belang van het bevorderen van klantentrouw en van het

financiële, het meten van “return on marketing investment” (ROMI) worden groter, zowel bij business- als bij consumentenmarketeers.

Vergeet de frivole buzzwords en de nieuwigheden, maar focus op de basics van prijszetting, inzicht in “customer experience”, klantentrouw en marketing metrics. Hoewel slechts 60% aangeeft beslissingen te baseren op metrics, geeft de meerderheid aan dat een kritische factor bij het verdedigen van het marketingbudget het bewijzen van ROMI is. En praat met uw klanten. Leer directe en interactieve communicatietechnieken. Er is een duidelijke verschuiving te zien in de verwachtingen m.b.t. marketinginvesteringen: meer naar direct marketing, events, on-line en e-mail, en een stagnatie van budgetten voor klassieke massamedia. Het lijkt wel alsof marketeers stellen dat hypes en nieuwigheden meer iets zijn voor goede dan voor slechte tijden, terwijl in moeilijke tijden misschien

net nieuwe en creatieve invalshoeken voor een impactvoller marketingbeleid kunnen zorgen.

En dan de buzzwords… die gedragen zich qua belang in de opeenvolgende jaren als…buzzwords: ze schieten omhoog als een vuurpijl, en doven net zo snel uit. De blijvers zijn inderdaad de basics: ROMI (56% van de respondenten), customer intelligence (57%) en customer experience (66%).

Opmerkelijke aandachtspunten, en zelfs stijgers in vergelijking met vorige jaren, zijn “authenticity” (57%) en “green marketing” (76%).

Zijn de marketeers aan een grondige introspectie begonnen, en is er zelfs sprake van een ethisch reveil? Weg van de gebakken lucht, mensen aanspreken op wat echt belangrijk voor hen is, en meer aandacht voor de rol van het bedrijf en het merk in de maatschappij? Het zou me niet verbazen.

Maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen, “triple bottom line” (de economische, ecologische en sociale opdrachten van bedrijven voor ogen houden), en zorgen voor echte meerwaarde voor klanten, gebaseerd op inzicht in hun behoeften en ervaringswereld, vinden we inderdaad al een tijdje terug in de missie, strategie en operationele activiteiten van vele ondernemingen. Als marketeers hun maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid ernstig nemen, worden ze in de toekomst allicht voor voller aangezien door de rest van de wereld. Als ze hun basics beter leren beheersen, worden ze wellicht ook meer au serieux genomen door hun management. De donkere wolken zijn dan misschien een catalysator geweest van een mentaliteitswijziging die hoe dan ook nodig was.

Patrick De Pelsmacker, 18 Maart 2009

IntroductionParticipantsExecutive Summary

Buzzwords, challenges and media for 20091. Buzzwords2. Challenges3. Marcom budget

How is the crisis impacting marketers?1. The Marketers Confidence Index2. Pricing and Value

Planned responses to the crisis1. Defending Budgets2. Measuring Marketing Performance3. Building Market Intelligence

The House of Marketing’s recommendations

Glossary

Table of Contents123

68

1114

202225

28303132

34

40

�

The House of Marketing started conducting the Yearly Marketing Survey in 2003. It is the most extensive and well-known survey keeping track of marketers’ thinking, behaviours, opportunities and challenges in Belgium

Every year, hundreds of marketing professionals across Belgium complete the extended questionnaire in December and January, looking forward to the coming year. As the leading barometer of Belgium’s marketing community, the 2009 Yearly Marketing Survey will again identify the new trends, current expectations and future challenges of Belgian marketers across B2C and B2B sectors.

The 2009 Yearly Marketing Survey innovates by launching the Marketers Confidence Index, and focuses more on the impact on and reaction of

Belgian marketers to the current economic crisis:

How are they really impacted? What is the level of confidence of Belgian marketers in terms of budget, staff and projects?Which strategies are they adopting? How do they measure their marketing performance? What impact has the economic crisis on pricing and other policies?

In addition, the challenges, buzzwords and Marcom budgets of Belgian marketers are of course surveyed, for the sixth year in a row. This document is a summary of the highlights and key conclusions of the 2009 Yearly Marketing Survey as presented on April 2, 2009 at the Stichting Marketing event.

Introduction

�

A total of 1028 respondents participated in the survey of which 73% are Dutch-speaking, 20% are French-speaking and the remainder 7% English-speaking. Respondent classification in terms of size

of marketing team finds the highest for 1-4 employees (29%) or for above 50 employees (24%), whereas the lowest response is for department sizes of 25-49 employees (10%)

45% of participants work in a B2B environment, 17% in a B2C one and 38% in a hybrid environment

The survey was conducted online from Dec 5, 2008 to Jan 30, 2009. The questionnaire contained 21 questions and took around 10 minutes to answer

For each question the response rate fluctuates between 565 and 1028 (partial survey completion), depending on the answers given

Additionally, there were 1240 respondents who either did not provide relevant answers (we recognized random clicking patterns) or only completed their profile to obtain survey results

Participants

565

463 1028

1240 14 2282Number of respondents

Full surveys

Total sample

Meresite

viewersresponses

-reviewed

Total responsesAnswers

-reviewed

�

Customer loyalty, experience and intelligence rule, or they should…

The marketers’ confidence index is on a historically low level. While marketers expect their teams to remain relatively stable in 2009, a huge majority expect their already revised 2009 budget to be reviewed again in the coming months. Healthcare and Utilities marketers are least positive compared to colleagues in other sectors.

Belgian marketers need to adopt a longer term decision horizon in order to sustainably position marketing as a key value adding department within the organization. Based on the findings from our survey, we identified a number of attention points that should help building further on both the external equity of marketing and the internal perception/credibility of the marketing department:

Build a sustainable strategy and organization

Marketers who want their brand to stand out from the crowd in the long-term will need to be genuine and authentic about the value proposition conveyed to target segments. A perfect fit has to be created between the corporate identity, business model and culture. Companies also need to focus on improving their internal operations and external touch-points within a consistent Customer Experience strategy Do more with less marketing resources

The size of the marketing budget is one of the first items to be challenged in times of crisis. It is far from likely that these will be restored to their pre-crisis levels without marketers needing to build up a rock-solid argumentation. Marketers must develop pragmatic marketing performance management tools allowing them

Executive Summary

�

to track, manage, benchmark and predict the financial return on marketing initiatives. The importance of and focus on measuring ROMI will return once short-term corrective actions have been implemented and companies need to evaluate future investments.

Define, create and capture more value and margins

As companies expect to be subject to higher price sensitivity, postponement of purchases and a decrease of volumes sold, marketers need to focus on highlighting the added-value of their products/services even more. Companies also need to find a better balance between top-line and bottom-line (analytical) marketers to leverage their customer data effectively, identify most sustainable and profitable customers as well as anticipate customers’

reactions better. Too many complex decisions are still judgment-based, many marketers lack proper analytical skills to generate relevant customer insights from the often non-standardized and scattered data available within their organization. Marketers must also get their basics right (such as pricing policy) before launching into the latest buzzword; this includes processes, segmentation and value proposition.

Some key findings of the 2009 Yearly Marketing Survey include:

• Marketers expect green marketing and customer experience to gain significantly in importance. Green, ethical marketing as well as authenticity are definitely contributing to the sustainability wave.

�

• Improving customer loyalty and value is marketers’ biggest challenge for 2009. Marketers seem to place greater emphasis on monitoring the financial impact of marketing. Nevertheless, ROMI is considered as a less important challenge, probably due to short term results focus and smaller budgets.

• The top 3 biggest media spend in 2009 remains unchanged compared to last year (direct marketing, events and newspapers). Use of online communication channels such as e-mail marketing has of course been gaining more and more importance in marketers’ minds over the years.

• Despite all ingredients being available, key efficiency metrics such as Average Revenue Per Customer and Customer Lifetime Value

are still under-used while measuring marketing performance.

• Analytical deployment is depending on organizational context and prioritization. Staff, time and budget are the key obstacles to improving marketing’s focus on this area.

BUZZWORDS, CHALLENGES AND MEDIA FOR 2009

�

• Green marketing is the n°1 buzzword for Belgian marketers in 2009, moving up from the third spot in 2008.

• Customer experience and authenticity are prominent in their mind too.

• Top 2 buzzwords are similar for B2B and B2C marketers. Customer intelligence and ROMI are next on the list of B2B marketers. For B2C, authenticity and social media rank buzzwords n°3 and 4 respectively.

• Interestingly, half of Belgian marketers have never heard of “Crowdsourcing” and 1 in 5 are not aware of the “360 Marketing” term.

1. Buzzwords

How do you expect the following buzzwords to evolve in terms of importance for the coming year?

N= 598

57%

57%

56%

66%

76%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Customer intelligence

Customer Experience

% of respondents who expect an increase

In survey 2008Legend:

New to the survey

In survey 2008Legend:

New to the survey

�

Customer Experience and ROMI are the only buzzwords to remain strong over the last five years.

All others tend to stay just buzzwords, such as Blogging.

Remember: buzzwords rankings are usually different from actual usage trends and challenges.

Evolution of buzzwords’ importance, perceived by marketers

N= 598

BUZZ INCREASE

Green Marketing

BUZZ STABLE

ROMICustomer

Experience

BUZZ DROP

Social MediaWeb 2.0 Blogging

Ethical Marketing

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

20092008200720062005

ROMI

Blogging

Customer experience

Social media

Web 2.0

�0

How sustainable will Green Marketing be? Which sector is surfing on the “sustainability” wave?

As expected Transport & Logistics is the most “green buzzed” sector, followed by Healthcare and Utilities. Distribution is the least.

Authenticity is also seen as a top buzzword for all sectors except ICT and Utilities.

Marketers in the financial and industrial sectors are those who see customer experience most as a top 3 buzzword, those in Utilities see it least.

How do you expect the following buzzwords to evolve in terms of importance for the coming year?

N= 598

Legend:

Top 3

65%

74%

78%

78%

79%

79%

79%

80%

88%

88%

91%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Professional Services

Industry & Materials

…

Other

Consumer Goods

Finance & Insurance

ICT

Healthcare

% of respondents who e xpect an increase

61%

62%

61%

62%

65%

60%

71%

38%

54%

63%

71%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%% of respondents who e xpect an increase

��

• The top 4 challenges for Belgian marketers are all about improving customer loyalty and value proposition.

• Financial concerns have increased as marketers named for the first time margin protection and sustainable revenue as top challenges.

• Competitive differentiation remains, as expected, one of marketers’ top 3 challenges.

2. Challenges

% of respondents

52%

48%

46%

45%

33%

33%

30%

29%

28%

27%

0, 0% 10, 0% 20, 0% 30, 0% 40, 0% 50, 0% 60, 0%

Build customer loyalty and trust

Building a strong brand

Protect margins

Sustain revenue growth

Protect market share

Communicate through online media

Not in 2008 Top 5Legend:

In 2008 Top 5 N= 683

What will be your major marketing challenges for 2009?

��

• Differentiation from competition and customer loyalty remain solid top-of-mind challenges for marketers over the past 4 years.

• Online communications, Innovation and ROMI (measuring marketing’s ROI) see a strong decline compared to 2008.

• Marketers strongly acknowledge the importance of highlighting the value and benefits of products/services they provide as a Top 3 challenge in 2009.

Evolution of challenges’ importance, perceived by marketers

N= 598

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

200920082007200620052004

Building customer loyalty and trust

ROMI

mediaBuilding a strong brand

Protect margins

Sustain revenue growth

among answers

��

Looking to business environments, main challenges seem to be quite similar…

Nevertheless B2C marketers place greater emphasis on building a strong(er) brand which is in line with their desire to protect market shares.

They also assess the challenge of communicating through online media as one of the most important, which is less the case for B2B marketers.

What will be your major marketing challenges for 2009?

��

The biggest media spend in 2009 will be:

Direct marketingEventsNewspapers/magazinesE-mail marketingOnline interactive marketing

These five media are firmly established as main spenders of the Marcom budget since they hold exactly the same position as last year.

Nevertheless, the share of top 4 spenders in the total budget tends to stabilize or slightly decrease at the benefit of other media. The Marcom budget is actually spread over an

1.2.3.4.5.

3. Marcom Budget

Please indicate which 3 media represent the largest part of your communication budget for 2009?

Not in 2008 Top 5

Legend:In 2008 Top 5

N= 661

��

increasing number of activities.In B2B direct marketing and events spend is shifting to e-mail marketing and other media.

• As a result of diversification of the media mix expenditures, online media such as e-mail marketing are grabbing larger shares in the Marcom budget allocation.

• Newspapers and magazines are falling below 2007 levels in terms of Marcom budget share.

• Direct marketing remains the main spender for B2B Marcom budgets

Which media takes the largest share of the Marcom budget?

2008 Legend:

2009 2007

N2007=323N2008=290N2009=262

12%

13%

18%

21%

7%

20%

21%

24%

13%

29%

25%

0% 10% 20% 30%

E-

Newspapers & Magazines

Events

% of respondents

�6

For B2C companies, newspapers & magazines and direct marketing spend is shifting partly to classic TV.

• B2C firms are expected to get back to basics since classic TV media is regaining share, remaining the main spender of Marcom budget for 2009.

• Moreover, promotions and sampling is conquering share at newspapers & magazines and direct marketing’s media expense.

Which media takes the largest share of the Marcom budget?

2008 Legend:

2009 2007

N2007=323N2008=290N2009=262

7%

13%

12%

30%

6%

17%

19%

25%

13%

21%

27%

0% 10% 20% 30%

Newspapers & Magazines

Classic TV

% of respondents

�7

45% of marketers expect a budget decrease that would negatively affect their media expenditures.

Mostly ICT, Finance and Consumer Goods sectors are expecting further budget reviews to impact the composition of their actual media expenditures.

In times of downturn, cutting media expenditures means shifting the media mix, otherwise this shift won’t take place.

The observed shift in the media mix is mainly due to past and expected budget reviews.

29%

32%

38%

39%

41%

44%

49%

50%

54%

58%

64%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Healthcare

Other

Professional Services

Industry & Materials

Consumer Goods

Finance & Insurance

ICT

% of respondents who agree

Average:45%

I expect further budget reviews in 2009 and I agree that it would impact negatively our media expenditures

Downturn to

media mix towards online

channels

Downturn expected to impact media expenditures

Yes

Yes

No

No

% of respondents

54%

29%

48%

23%

��

Marketers are struggling to adopt a long term sustainable business model

BUZZWORDS

The results highlighted by the survey are not that surprising. Marketers are definitely matching customers’ environmental concerns by picking up green marketing as the top buzzword for the coming year. Ethical marketing as well as authenticity are values that marketers also plan to take into consideration when promoting their products/services. Together these three buzzwords contribute to the actual sustainability wave.

The relative importance of customer experience and intelligence terms also documents the proactivity shown by Belgian marketers when interacting with customers.

The borders between companies and customers tend to disappear; firms are looking to (or should) gather much more information about their clients in order to build deeper and more effective customer relationships. Consumers are also keen to better know companies and products before becoming loyal.

CHALLENGES

In times of crisis, companies’ challenges are clear: it’s all about improving customer loyalty and value proposition. As predicted by buzzwords learnings, companies tend to be much more customer-oriented, improving their value definition and branding efforts, trying to differentiate even more from the competition. Focusing on building customer loyalty and trust as well as highlighting benefits of products seem to be key strategies used by

The House of Marketing Comments…

��

Belgian marketers for keeping market shares and profit margins at decent levels during economic downturns.

Measuring return on marketing efforts isn’t anymore in the top five challenges since companies tend to be more conservative regarding their marketing policies and working with smaller budgets.

MARCOM

Strong budget reductions have made marketers rethink their media mix. Overall, communications budget have been shifting from Direct Marketing and Events to e-mail marketing and other media.

45% of marketeers still expect a media budget decrease, and those do rebalance their media mix to more measurable media

HOW IS THE CRISIS IMPACTING MARKETERS?

��

The marketers confidence index is at an historically low level, featuring a strong decrease from 2008 and being seen well below its 2005 level.

The sharp drop in confidence is mainly due to the increased pessimism regarding projects and budgets.

Note: The marketers confidence index is an average of marketers’ expectations about their budget, projects and staff headcount. The percentage reflects a balance between the positive, neutral and negative views. It can vary from -100% to +100% depending on the amount of confidence.

1. The Marketers Confidence Index

9,5%

24,7%27,5%26,8%

22,6%

0%

25%

50%

75%

20092008200720062005

Net Adjusted Index(%)

Legend:

��

Marketers in healthcare remain least positive compared to colleagues in other sectors.Based on previous years, healthcare expectations appear very accurate in hindsight, whereas the other sectors tend to to be too positive.

Not a single sector has escaped budget cuts in 2008. Marketing budgets have been cut by 56% on average.

Transport & Logistics and Finance & Insurance have been the most affected, Distribution the least.

What was the actual change of your marketing budget during 2008 compared to the previous year?

20%

-3%

15%

5%

15%

20%

4%

-0,2%

8%

6%

9%

-10% 10% 30%

Legend:

Other

Healthcare

Industry & materials

Consumer goods

Professional services

ICT

Finance & insurance

Net Adjusted Index(%)

Average:9.5%

��

Marketers have downward expectations overall. In addition actual 2007 figures were already pessimistic.

Belgian marketers are less confident than during the last five years, especially on the budget side

2009) hindsight)

Legend:

��

Prices are expected to remain stable or to decrease due to the economic situation.

Most marketers expect to sustain their current pricing policy overall.

Companies will need to highlight the added value of their products/services even more.

Customers will become far more price sensitive and postpone purchases due to the economic crisis.

2. Pricing and Value

4%

5%

11%

14%

32%

43%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Lower volumes

Lower margins

Higher price

Lower price or higher discounts

% of respondents

How do you expect the current economic crisis to affect your prices or price policies in 2009?

How do you expect your customers to react to the economic crisis?

�6

Financial concerns and prospects hit marketers’ confidence.

• The Marketers Confidence Index is on a historically low level, after observing the largest absolute change in 5 years.

• This dip can be atributed to a significant decrease in expected budget and projects evolutions.

• All sectors have sustained marketing budget cuts, healthcare and distribution being the most conservative for the future.

Marketers need to fight the crisis with lower budgets

• 80% of respondents expect their already revised 2009 budget to be reviewed again in the coming months.

• Marketers expect to be subject to higher price sensitivity, postponement of purchases and a decrease of volumes sold.

• Companies will need to focus on highlighting the added-value of their products/services more to customers in order to counter an expected downward trend.

The House of Marketing Comments…

PLANNED RESPONSES TO THE CRISIS

�0

Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) is considered the critical success factor in defending marketing budgets.

The need for proofs in these hard times is high; no proof, no budget.

1. Defending Budgets

5%

6%

7%

8%

9%

10%

10%

46%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Visibility & trust of

New product launches

Data (availability & quality)

ROMI/Proof of performance

% of respondents

What would allow you to better defend your 2009 marketing budget?

N= 859

��

When tracking marketing performance, three hard metrics and two soft metrics are most often used:

Customer satisfactionNumber of customersLoyaltyBrand awarenessAverage revenue per

customer (ARPC)

Mastering ARPC and CLV (customer lifetime value) tend to be key in outperforming competition.

1.2.3.4.5.

2. Measuring Marketing Performance

How do you expect the current economic crisis to affect your prices or price policies in 2009?

47%

47%

53%

60%

69%

Average revenue per customer

Brand awareness

Loyalty

Number of customers

% of respondents

Hard metrics

Legend:

��

• Usage of metrics is higher than their usage for decision making. 1 out of 5 marketers do not use the full combination of metrics available to them.

• Reports are more analyzed by marketers than the actual raw data, generating missed opportunities to keep or increase customer value.

3. Building Marketing Intelligence

Both metrics

81% 8%

No metrics

4%

Hard only

7%

Using hard metrics

Yes

Yes

No

No

Many of the insights our

department is building are based on intensive data

analysis

analysis than reports

55%

16%48%

Yes

No

37%

% of respondents

��

Marketers need to invest in measurement and intelligence to tackle future challenges successfully

Marketers realise the importance of ROMI …

• Almost half of the marketers indicates ROMI as an indispensable tool to defend their budget

• Marketers indicating that they monitor financial performance and key customer metrics are more confident to outperform their competition

• Customer Lifetime Value and Loyalty metrics are still under-used despite being expected performance boosters and with all ingredients available

…yet they only apply very basic marketing performance principles.

• Half of marketers do not track the average revenue per customer and less than 20% of marketers know the customer lifetime value of an individual customer

• 1 out of 5 marketers does not use a combination of hard and soft metrics

The House of Marketing Comments…

THE HOUSE OF MARKETING’S RECOMMENDATIONS

�6

• Marketers need to adopt a longer term decision horizon in order to sustainably position marketing as a key value-adding department within the organization.

• Marketers who want their brand to stand out from the crowd in the long-term will need to be genuine and authentic about the value proposition conveyed to target segments. A perfect fit has to be created between corporate identity, business model and company culture.

• Companies need to find a better balance between top-line and bottom-line marketers to leverage their customer data effectively and anticipate customers’ reactions.

Build a Sustainable Strategy and Organization

• Companies need to focus on improving their internal operations and external touch-points within a consistent Customer Experience strategy.

Marketers must get their basics right (such as pricing policy) before launching into the latest buzzword; this includes processes, segmentation and value proposition.

�7

The size of the marketing budget is one of the first items to be challenged in times of crisis. It is far from likely that marketing budgets will restore to their pre-crisis levels without marketers needing to build up a rock-solid argumentation to support a future request for marketing budget growth.

• Marketers should not only think about how to differentiate their product, brand or company. They should pay at least as much attention to the selling proposition of the marketing department itself and position marketing internally as an essential tool in the company’s value creation model.

Do More With Less Marketing Resources

• Marketers must develop pragmatic marketing performance management tools allowing them to track, manage, benchmark and predict the financial return on marketing initiatives. They also need to align their focus more with the main concern of the boardroom: sustainable profitability.

• The importance of and focus on measuring ROMI will return once short-term corrective actions have been implemented and companies need to evaluate future investments.

Marketers need to be able to prove and communicate the return on their initiatives if they want to grow and capitalize on their authority within the boardroom.

��

Marketing departments aspiring to outperform their peers should invest in developing their analytical skills to a level allowing them to extract maximal value from internal data and generate relevant customer insights that can be used to support their decisions.

• Introduce a better pricing power such as value-based pricing, but ensure first the right deployment of data and customer intelligence.

Define, Create and Capture More Value• Too many complex decisions are still judgment-

based, many marketers lack proper analytical skills to generate relevant customer insights from the often non-standardized and scattered data available within their organization.

• Some marketers need also to be better educated about direct and interactive marketing in order to be able to effectively deliver results in these areas.

Marketers rely too much on reports analysis instead of data, which can lead to missed customer intelligence opportunities. Marketers need the right strategy, internal coordination and sometimes tools to find and exploit accurate data.

�0

AuthenticityRefers to the action of promoting a brand or product based on real stories or facts. Customers are looking for authentic experiences analysing what is real and what is fake about the company and its products/services. Authenticity marketing is then about treating prospecs and customers with respect.

Customer ExperienceBeing the sum of all interactions a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, this concept emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving success for companies across all industries. Besides, the goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to move customers from satisfied to loyal and then from loyal to advocate.

Customer Intelligence Process of gathering and analyzing information regarding customers in order to build deeper and more

effective customer relationships and improve strategic decision making. Customer Intelligence is known to be a key component of effective Customer Relationship Management.

Data mining/Predictive analyticsProcess of extracting hidden patterns from data to facilitate predictions about future events. Transforming data into information allows marketers to better profiling customers needs and market trends.

EngagementAlso known as participation marketing, engagement marketing is a strategy that encourage customer to participate to the evolution of a brand or a product/service. Rather than being passive, engagement marketers believe that consumers should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs.

Glossary

��

Green marketingGreen marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus, green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.

ROMIROMI stands for ‘Return on Marketing Investment’ and is a concept that makes the link between the money that is being spent on marketing investments, such as advertising, and the money (in euro) that is earned by every euro invested.

360° marketingMix of integrated marketing and web 2.0 usages, 360 degree marketing characterizes a multichannel marketing strategy consisting of the exploitation of each promotion media.

Marketers Confidence Index The average of Belgian marketers’ expectations about their budget, projects and staff headcount. This percentage reflects the balance between all the positive, neutral and negative views. It can vary from -100% to +100% depending on the amount of confidence, from totally pessimistic to totally optimistic respectively.

Net Adjusted Index (NAI) Degree of ‘outspokenness’ of a direction; i.e. a positive NAI indicates an increase of importance of an item, but the number reveals how relevant or outspoken this increase is, according to the survey respondents.Net Index represents the difference between respondents seeing an increase versus those seeing a decrease. Moreover, the NAI gets adjusted by the weight that these two opinions represent against those stating a status quo.

��

About The House of Marketing

The House of Marketing is Belgium’s first Marketing Expertise and Excellence Center. For the last 15 years, it has been offering clients in B2B and B2C sectors strategic marketing advice, marketing project management, and marketing interim management; from strategy and go-to-market, to marketing organization, process and marketing performance.

The House of Marketing is based in Mechelen and currently has a team of 70 marketing experts.

More on www.thom.eu

Follow us also on www.twitter.com/thomeu and www.slideshare.com/thomeu

Kardinaal Mercierplein 2 | 2800 Mechelen | tel + 32 (0)15 444 000 | fax +32 (0)15 444 044

www.thom.eu | info@thom.eu