The good news is fewer B to B marketers are cutting marketing budgets in 2010. But nearly half (43%) anticipate only level funding for marketing expenditures when compared to last year. That’s the findings of the Target Marketing’s Media Usage Forecast 2010.

Based on the class of customer served, planned  level funding for marketing among survey respondents breaks out as follows:

• B-to-B: 55%
• B-to-C: 42%
• Serves both types of customers: 40%

The better news is that these businesses, on average, plan to increase marketing expenditures by an amount ranging from 22%-23%.  The greatest number of businesses plan increased spending on specific media forms as follows:

• E-mail 68.4%
• Direct mail 31.8%
• Advertising on Web sites 32.9%
• Affiliate marketing 22%
• Search engine optimization 47.7%
• Search engine marketing 45.2%

Customer acquisition remains a key goal of marketing investment. And survey respondents indicated that their top forms of acquiring new customers in 2010 will be e-mail (84.6%) and direct mail (70.4%). It’s the same story for customer retention, though businesses rely even more heavily on e-mail (88.6%) than direct mail (65.6%) for this purpose.

[Source: Mummert, Hallie. Media Usage Forecast 2010. Target Marketing Mag. March 2010. Web. 15 March 2010]

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Full-Service Restaurants. The following are the predicted Top 5 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

• Full service restaurants are promoting their green practices, such as reduced energy use, to appeal to consumers.
• Politicians and thought leaders are calling attention to the level of sodium in restaurant food.
• Restaurants, including full service, experienced at least a 3.9% drop in consumer visits in 2009 but anticipate some improvement in 2010.
• Locally-sourced produce and meats, along with concern for sustainability, remain top concerns in 2010.
• Full-service restaurants must promote value meals to compete in the new economy.

The Industry Marketing Insights report for Full-Service Restaurants is available on Ad-ology.com (Research Store) for $195 USD with local market data for any U.S. market.

[Source: Ad-ology Research. March12, 2010]

More than ever, large companies are focused on cutting costs and measuring performance. At the same time, Chief Marketing Officers  (CMOs) are struggling to adopt best marketing campaign management (MCM) principles. This topic is the focus of a new book Data-Driven Marketing – the 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know by, Mark Jeffery, senior lecturer of technology at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University.

Jeffery’s research shows that “four out of five senior marketing executives have not adopted best-practice marketing campaign management.” For the most part, Jeffery had studied companies with an average marketing budget of $400 million. At these companies, senior managers are not using business cases or  return on investment (ROI) metrics to make funding decisions. Here’s why these businesses are not adopting strict measures to use in making funding decisions:

• Senior managers use instinct and ‘gut feel’:  63%
• Lack employees to track and analyze data: 64%
• Organization lacks knowledge on topics such as ROI, net present value (NPV) and customer lifetime value (CLTV): 50%

Jeffery classifies the steps necessary to achieve effective MCM as follows:

• Defined:  The organization establishes processes and procedures to achieve stated goals
• Intermediate: The organization is centralizing marketing resources and developing specific metrics for measuring investments and outcomes
• Advanced: The organization is  tracking and monitoring investments and results and then acting on the data as it becomes available.

It should come as little surprise that achieving the advanced level of MCM “provides real results to a firm’s bottom line,” said Jeffery.  As more companies tighten the funds flow, look for marketing departments to invest in better ways to measure outcome.

[Source: Kellogg School Study Finds CMOs Still Struggling to Make Marketing Campaigns and ROI Transparent. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 2 March 2010. Web. 11. March 2010]

Insurance companies appear to be taking a page from the food marketers’ handbook. A recent report in Youth Markets Alert describes how insurance companies are expanding their efforts to reach the youngest consumers: kids and teens.  One company, American Family Insurance, is sponsoring the “Clifford the Big Red Dog Be Big” campaign while State Farm has underwritten the Nickelodeon’s “Go Diego, Go Live! Tour.”

These investments are all about educating young consumers on the value of insurance while influencing them with brand messages.  According to Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, the teen demographic is very important to auto insurance firms. At the time when many teens begin to drive, families may start looking around for a  new carrier. Cost is often a motivating factor as  a teen driver can add 50% to auto premiums. “Teens really trigger shopping among parents,” says Walker.

Recognizing the influence that teens and younger children may have on the parental decision-making process, insurance carriers are putting more money and effort in youth-specific marketing programs. These include:

• 2010 Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic – sponsorship includes signage and uniforms.
• TV ads promoting a partnership between Geico and Disney is tied to the animated film The Princess and the Frog.
• Kids 15 and under, of South Asian descent, can compete for a $5,000 scholarship in the 2010 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee.
• Smoke Detectives is State Farm’s game micro-site targeting younger consumers while educating them on the topic of fire safety.

Many of these programs are examples of creative marketing solutions applied to the continuing challenge of getting consumer attention. As new technology becomes available, marketers can develop and deploy new campaigns to effectively promote their brands.

[Source: Insurance Companies Use Education, Mascots, And Live Events To Reach Youth At Every Life Stage. Youth Market Alert. EPMCOM.com. March 2010]