A survey of 600+ MarketingProfs members conducted this past week reveals that the majority of marketers have already started adjusting plans and budgets for 2009 as a result of the financial crisis.
The MarketingProfs survey raises two important issues...


But first, some details from our survey:
* The majority (52%) of marketers are already making changes to plans and budgets as a result of the economic crisis with 65% of marketers expecting negative effects on marketing overall.
* Whether the market continues to fluctuate or falls into a recession, 75% of marketers surveyed expect the impact of the crisis will extend through 2009 and into 2010. Expectations include departmental staff layoffs (25%) or a decrease in compensation (43%) with 17% expecting both to occur.
* Online marketing is turning into a venue where marketers can stretch their dollar while accurately targeting leads and customers. 60% of all marketers surveyed stressed that they would be increasing their online budgets while 85% would be reducing their use of traditional marketing vehicles.
While the survey suggests that marketing budgets will most likely shrink along with staff size, history shows this is a mistake. In the long run, those who are most successful keep their products and services in the minds of customers and prospects.
Here are the two important issues the survey raises, in my mind:
1. Marketers know that marketing spend is still widely viewed as a discretionary expense that can be easily cut in anticiaption of an economic downturn. For some reason, we marketers have not made any progress convincing our senior management that cutting marketing in a recession is a big mistake. Why not?
2. The economic downturn will speed the shift to digital marketing and away from traditional media. Over 62% of marketers said they are going to increase spending on digital marketing and 84% said they are going to reduce spending on traditional vehicles. Apparently, marketers believe that digital marketing is the way to stretch their budgets. Is this true?
Please leave your thoughts below.