“This is a classic ‘chicken and egg’ situation,” said Peter Romaine, Director and General Manager, Xerox Global Services, Xerox UK. “Whilst both marketing and financial professionals believe marketing is delivering ROI, they can’t show it. Without being able to demonstrate it, it’s an uphill struggle to argue the case for increasing the marketing budget – and perhaps help to fund more measurement. There is a clear disconnect between the success that both CMOs and CFOs believe the marketing department is delivering, the ability to measure that success and being able to demonstrate the marketing department’s ROI. If CMOs could provide the evidence, the research suggests that they could protect or increase their marketing budgets.”
CMOs and CFOs (56 and 33 per cent respectively) believe that by increasing marketing measurement they’ll be able to see and show the benefits of that marketing activity better. But marketing measurement remains fairly basic with 81 per cent still using Excel spreadsheets, 47 per cent using paper based systems and 3 per cent with no measurement at all.
Increasing marketing measurement is the way CMOs can drive budget upwards with nearly all (97 per cent) of CMOs and CFOs agreeing that by increasing marketing activity measurement they will be better placed to both see and show how marketing is contributing to the business. The survey also highlights a trend to increase the measurement of marketing activity (70 per cent of CMOs and 39 per cent of CFOs) and that marketing can make a real business and profitability impact on company performance with the majority of CMOs (96 per cent) and CFOs (87 per cent) agreeing.
Said Peter Romaine: “Without the measurement tools to underpin their business case, it’s going to be hard for marketing professionals to protect their budgets from the inevitable cost-cutting exercises that may accompany the global financial crisis. Advertising, PR and marketing are often the first disciplines to get hit by recession. The results of this survey suggest that if marketeers could extract the right marketing knowledge from measurement and then communicate it well to the Board, they could protect themselves from budget cuts.”
Unsurprisingly, the survey reveals that 47 per cent of CMOs and 65 per cent of CFOs believe that the prevailing economic conditions will threaten marketing budgets in 2009.
“The main problem seems to be measurement – and communicating the right marketing knowledge to the Board – CMOs simply don’t have the right tools to do the job well,” said Ian Parkes, director at Coleman Parkes, the research firm conducting the survey. “One of the surprising outcomes of the survey is that there are few companies using sophisticated technologies to measure their marketing effectiveness with UK companies being unable to get a complete, holistic, 3600 view of how their marketing departments are performing. This is making it increasingly difficult to justify expenditure.”
The ‘Marketing Success’ survey, released today by Xerox, was undertaken amongst 460 CMOs and 167 CFOs within large corporations across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK.
For more information about the ‘Marketing Success’ research, please contact:
Judith Schunke, Xerox Europe, T: +44 (0) 1895 842 877
email: judith.schunke@xerox.com
Philipp Haberland , Trimedia Ltd, T: +44 (0) 207 025 7584
email: xerox@trimediauk.com
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About the Research
The research included 460 interviews with CMOs and 167 with CFOs (627 in total) within the following countries:
| UK | 100 (interviews) |
| Germany | 103 |
| Spain | 106 |
| Italy | 109 |
| France | 102 |
| Netherlands | 107 |
Interviews were limited to large or ganisations within each country. No industry sect or quotas were applied. The CMO interview lasted on average around 15 minutes; the CFO interview was slightly sh o r ter at 10 minutes. Interviewing was conducted in May and June 2008. All interviews were carried out by fully trained interviewers w or king to IQCS guidelines and the entire project was conducted in strict acc or dance with the MRS Code of Conduct.
About Xerox UK
Xerox UK , the UK operation of Xerox Corporation, markets a comprehensive range of Xerox products, solutions and services, as well as associated supplies and software. Its offerings are focused on three main areas: offices from small to large, production print and graphic arts environments, and services that include consulting, systems design and management, and document outsourcing.
Xerox also has manufacturing and logistics operations in Ireland , the UK and the Netherlands , and a research and development facility (Xerox Research Centre Europe) in Grenoble , France . For more information visit, www.xerox.com
Customer Contact
For information on Xerox products and services, call 0870 873 4519 or visit www.xerox.com/uk
Media Contacts:
Judith Schunke, Xerox Europe, T: +44 (0) 1895 842 877
email: judith.schunke@xerox.com
Philipp Haberland , Trimedia Ltd, T: +44 (0) 207 025 7584
email: xerox@trimediauk.com
About Coleman Parkes Research
Coleman Parkes Research delivers premium quality, action focused research, specialising in the business-to- business space. The Company, now in its eighth year, undertakes end-user global research f or service and product suppliers to all parts of the business community including Finance, Retail, Government, Services and Manufacturing. IT and technology bespoke research projects are a key strength of the company, delivered in an interactve and tailored manner by senior Directors.
For more information about Coleman Parkes, please contact:
Ian Parkes, Direct or T: +441227794398; M: +44 07866779769 and E: Ian@coleman-parkes.co.uk or visit www.coleman-parkes.co.uk .
