Opinion: Marketers are 'quietly confident' in the prospects for the UK economy

David Thorp on trends in the marketing sector

THE Chartered Institute of Marketing's latest Marketing Trends Survey for Autumn 2009 reveals that marketers, UK-wide, continue to be quietly confident about the prospects for the UK economy over the next 12 months.
The picture emerging from this ninth wave of Marketing Trends Survey, conducted for the Institute by Ipsos MORI, is that optimism has recovered strongly since the low point of last year's survey, and the first signs of optimism already seen in the previous wave six months ago appear to have been consolidated.
Sales are up, redundancies are down.
The more positive outlook is backed up by the financial conditions of the companies surveyed, which have improved compared to the previous wave: sales performances are up, marketing spend is up, redundancies are going down. However, those figures are far from where they were before the economic crisis. It seems that the recession has left many companies weaker and any recovery is proving slow and difficult, with many still struggling.
The survey reveals that after the low point in autumn 2008, when 70% expected the economy to get worse versus just 11% who thought it would improve, sentiment has continued to brighten through spring and into autumn this year. In spring 2009, the proportion expecting conditions to worsen halved (to 34%). Now 51% expect the economy to improve and just 12% expect it to get worse in the next year.
2010 will certainly be an interesting year for marketers, with the continuing uncertainty about an economic recovery, the UK general election and an ever-growing presence of digital and social media. It's good to see that marketers are responding to customer needs by changing their products and services.
For now, marketers are wisely concentrating their spend in the most effective activities, and still see the need to invest in training. As we move into the New Year, I'm convinced this more professional approach will stand them in good stead when the economy fully recovers.

David Thorp is director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing