Member Article

Northern business in a 'mellow' marketing mood

Marketing professionals in the North of England are currently upbeat about their prospects, according to new research. The latest survey by The Chartered Institute of Marketing has found that Northern marketers hold views about their own companies which are in line with the positive attitude shared by UK marketers as a whole.

59% of marketers in the UK predict that business for their own company will improve over the coming year and a similar proportion (55%) of marketers based in the North agree. In comparison, just 1 in 5 believe that the UK’s future economic conditions will improve over the same period – the same proportion as the overall UK findings.

Less than three-fifths of marketers in the North say that marketing is viewed as a ‘high priority’ within their company’s business strategy, which is in line with the UK as a whole. However, it appears that securing budget has become more difficult for marketers in the North. Over half (54%) now say they find it difficult to secure budget compared with 44% in the previous wave of research.

Philip Knowles, Durham Tees Valley Branch Chairman of The Institute, said: “This latest Marketing Trends survey confirms that our business is not one that stays still. Playing by yesterday’s rules is not an option for the modern marketer – keeping up to date with current thinking and maintaining skills has never been more important.

“It’s interesting to note that a significant majority of marketers are still not making use of the full spectrum of technologies available to help them communicate with customers. In fact, the numbers answering ‘not at all’ when asked how regularly they used podcasts, corporate blogs, mobile marketing and viral marketing has actually increased since the survey was last conducted in autumn 2006. While traditional marketing techniques will remain important tools for marketers in the future, it will be interesting to see how these figures change when we carry out our next survey.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .