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Creating a Marketing Budget
The holidays usually bring marketing professionals more than just gifts and merriment, it is also that cherished time of year when accounting and marketing face off for the budgeting season. This is never an easy time for marketing as CFOs and controllers generally eye the marketing budget as a slush fund. It is easy money after all, no one has to lose their job, no one gets hurt, that is, except the company.
The marketing budget is not only a necessary part of generating revenues for the next year, but it is also an investment. Over the years, I have learned that the speed with which companies tend to chop marketing budgets has less to do with how much they value marketing in their business and more to do with marketing activities being viewed as a means to “grow.†If you are not planning to grow or don’t think you will grow, then it reasons that marketing activities should be cut.
While many marketing activities are aimed at generating growth opportunities, the problem with this type of thinking it that is extremely short term. Most companies are not in touch with how much marketing buoys their current sales, but they are even more out of touch with how long it takes to generate new markets, new opportunities and most importantly new customers. To get yields that are sustainable, marketing programs should be viewed as multi-year investments rather than annual renewables.
B2B, a marketing strategy magazine, recently published a survey touting the fact that 40% of marketing budgets within the B-to-B segment will rise in 2010. What this really means is that 60% of marketing budgets will either stay flat or decrease, therefore, 60% of us will not be positioned to grow or perhaps even recover in 2010 or beyond. The good news is that 40% of companies seem to get it. Now based on this information, which companies do you predict will recover and begin growing again at the fastest pace?