March 2nd, 2010

Marketing Executives Networking Group & Anderson Analytics Release Results of Third Annual Top Marketing Trends Survey

Today MENG, along with Anderson Analytics – which is run by MENG member Tom Anderson, announce the results of our 3rd Annual Top Marketing Trends Study. This is a great read as the group and the study crosses a fairly large cross section of the marketing leadership and executives in many companies and industries in the U.S. Theyare top notch people. I resonated with the findings – the trends are are for increased investment in social marketing, marketing performance management, mobile marketing, and focus on emerging markets. Favorite books  and gurus were also included that are popular among marketing executives surveyed. Overall, the marketing community is optimistic about future growth for their industries and are happy in their jobs. Marketing executives reported being happy in their jobs, which is surprising given that CMO turnover in the C-Suite is fatest of all the other functions.

Old Saybrook, CT – March 2, 2010 – The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and Anderson Analytics today issued the results of its Third Annual Survey of Top Marketing Trends. Anderson Analytics surveyed MENG’s nearly 2000 senior marketing members, focusing on the top marketing concepts, buzz words, social media strategy, geographic / demographic considerations as well as the books and thought leaders that executive marketers look to for inspiration and growth opportunity.

“The annual Top Marketing Trends survey continues to provide valuable insight and direction on where the marketing industry is headed and what’s holding marketers’ attention,” said Richard Sellers, Chairman of MENG and Founder of Demand Marketing. “For example, the high importance of marketing ROI, social media and mobile marketing became evident in this year’s survey findings.”

“While more marketers are optimistic about the future prospect of growth, marketers are still feeling the pressure of a tough economic cycle with the need to prove a return on their marketing investments,” said Tom H.C. Anderson, Managing Partner of Anderson Analytics.  “It’s also no surprise to see social media ranking high in the minds of most marketers, but also shows the group is beginning to tire of some of the social media-related buzz words, especially ‘Twitter’.”

Top Findings: 

66% of marketers are more optimistic about business opportunity in 2010; 28% view 2010 similarly to 2009 while only 6% are less optimistic about the outlook.  Compared to last year’s survey findings, marketers are:

Social media remains hot with 70% of marketers planning new social media initiatives in 2010.  Interestingly, social media, twitter and social networking ranked as the top “buzz words marketers are most tired of hearing.”

Regarding companies’ presence on social media sites, large companies are more likely to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace; smaller companies rely more on LinkedIn.

“Marketing ROI” moved from the third most important marketing concept in last year’s survey to the number one spot in this year’s survey, followed by “Customer Retention” and Brand Loyalty.”

“Mobile Marketing” and “Social Media” officially made the top-10 concept list for the first time this year.  

Of the 53 identified marketing concepts, “Developed Markets,” “Multi-language,” “Social Consciousness,” “Offshoring” and “Long Tail” were viewed as the least important.

Overall marketing executives are more likely to rely on internal employees for their social media initiatives than any outside firms. Companies that are going outside for help with social media strategy and implementation are much more likely to look to social media consultants, and to a lesser degree interactive agencies, than to advertising agencies or public relations firms.

Not surprisingly, China was still ranked as the top geographic opportunity for growth, followed by India, Latin America and Brazil. And among the various target demographics, MENG members still feel that Boomers represent the best opportunity for customer targeting, followed by women and Hispanics. The overall importance of different demographics has not changed significantly since last year’s survey. 

Top Marketing Gurus & Books:

The main sources of marketing inspiration remained practically the same this year.  Seth Godin remains the favorite marketing / business guru three years in a row. Steve Jobs and Philip Kotler increased in popularity and now occupy second and third place, respectively. Two social media focused gurus, David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan, made the list for the first time this year.

Outliers, Good to Great, and Blue Ocean Strategy were the top three business books MENG members would recommend reading.  Advertising Age, Wall Street Journal and Fast Company were ranked as the most popular publications read by senior marketing professionals.  And by a large margin, MENG members respect Apple the most in terms of company and brand marketing.

Happiness & Dream Jobs:

Despite tough market conditions, senior marketing executives appear to be quite happy with their current job. Over 60% gave a seven or above overall rating on the job satisfaction scale. When asked about their dream job, 44% of the respondents provided answers within the field of Marketing and over 13% of the members say they currently are in their dream job.

Anderson Analytics conducted the Top Marketing Trends survey among current MENG members between January 11 and February 8, 2010. Anderson Analytics used text-mining software to code open-ended/free form text answers to questions in order to truly understand what issues were top-of-mind among the senior executives. The 533 responses yield a confidence interval of +/-3.64%.

For a complete copy of survey results, visit www.mengonline.com/visitors/newsroom.