Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

The days of the defined benefit (DB) retirement plan are so over. In 1998, DB plans, a cornerstone in union heavy industries such as manufacturing and energy, comprised 4.19% of employer payroll costs. Ten years later, that amount dropped to 1.99%. In addition to the rapid shrinking of DB retirement plans, employers have made significant cuts to this benefit overall. Between 1998 and 2008, retirement benefits dropped 19%.

Analysts believe that the sales of smart phones will surpass the sales of traditional mobile phones by the end of the 3rd Quarter 2011. Now that these devices have firmly established dominance in the marketplace, engineers and designers are hard at work to bring out the next generation of products. The release of these products in the next few years will also allow new players to enter the market.

Yesterday, I discussed how more CPG marketers will be shifting their budgets to the e-commerce and supercenter channels during the next few years. According to Nielsen, more shoppers will be looking for CPG products in those channels. At the same time, CPG marketers may also target specific demographic groups as they shop online.

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Nonprofit, Civic/Social Organizations. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

* In 2009, corporate giving increased 5.5% (5.9% adjusted for inflation) to $14.1 billion. Industry professionals credit the increase of corporate in-kind donations, which are less effected by recessions.
* Peer-to-peer fundraising is expected to continue growth, due in part to the popularity of social networks and ubiquity of mobile devices.
Seventy-nine percent of nonprofit organization professionals are uncertain of how to demonstrate social media’s value for their organizations, though the majority (85%) plan to use it more in the next two years.

As e-commerce continues to impact consumer shopping, analysts expect some sales channels to suffer more than others when it comes to the CPG category. Specifically, between now and 2015, Nielsen analysts are looking for supercenters and e-commerce sites to increase their dollar share of total channel sales by 5 points. These changes also suggest that marketing budgets for CPG are likely to change.

The credit card industry is recovering from serious challenges encountered in the past few years. Too many consumers loaded up on debt before the recession and many are now either working out payment plans or they filed for bankruptcy and need a fresh financial start. At the same time, the federal government passed sweeping financial reforms designed to prevent credit card companies and consumers from contributing to another economic bubble. These factors mean credit card companies will be marketing to key demographic groups to find new customers.