Despite the current economic climate, majority of business organizations say that their marketing budgets have increased. Nearly 43.8 percent of the 57.1 percent respondents who said the company had a marketing budget, indicated the budget had increased, while a further 31.3 percent indicated the marketing budget had remained unchanged.
The survey was conducted by PR and marketing agency in the Middle East BR Communications on the ‘Marketing Budgets and Preferences’. The survey was administered to ascertain market appetite for marketing activities and preferences within the current economic climate.
On changes in marketing budgets, the results were illuminating. Encouragingly over 80 percent of respondents stated that a marketing budget was either very important or important to the business.
However, 32.1 percent of respondents stated a marketing budget was not utilized as firms carry out their marketing activities internally (21.4 percent), or utilize marketing services on an ad-hoc basis (57.1 percent). Another reason given for the absence of a marketing budget was because companies had made the decision to eliminate the marketing budget (21.4 percent).
“Knowing the appetite of the market helps in the structuring of marketing plans to meet demands because in any economic climate getting the word out about your business and service remains an important necessity,” said Bahaa Fatairy, Founder and Managing Director, BR Communications.
A large portion of the survey addressed preferences for marketing channels and corresponding techniques. A whopping 75 percent indicated digital marketing techniques as a popular choice. Digital marketing was defined in the survey as marketing involving social media platforms, email, SEO and other digital methodologies.
The next most popular techniques were those defined as content (press releases, interviews, case studies, info-graphics, and articles) and promotional (flyers, coupons) marketing (42 percent each). While traditional marketing techniques (advertisements on radio, TV, print newspapers, and magazines) followed with 32 percent indicating the techniques are still employed for marketing needs. Results indicated mobile marketing (direct calling, WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS) as the least popular marketing technique with just 17 percent respondents stating their organizations use it.
“In our initial running of the survey responses, our results indicated that digital marketing techniques were still reign king amongst the techniques companies in the region use. We will continue to analyze our results and release more interesting insights on the details of each of these techniques in the near future. The survey administered online, and promoted through BR Communications social media profiles, received responses from companies representing a variety of industries and from various countries in the region. As such, the survey cannot be generalized to any specific locale or industry given the sample size for each industry,” added Mr Fatairy.
