The Role Of Marketing 2006

The Chartered Institute of Marketing's recent online survey among UK marketers, conducted by Ipsos, reveals that although most marketers assert that marketing is a priority in their company's business strategy, securing marketing budget continues to be a very different matter for many -- particularly in the very largest businesses.

Overall, three-fifths (59%) of the marketers surveyed say that marketing is a 'high priority' within their business's strategy, while a third (32%) say it is 'discussed but is not seen as an integral part of the strategy' and a further 9% say it is a 'low priority'. This compares with over four-fifths (85%) of organisations with under 1631 million turnover who say it is a 'high priority', but only half (48%) of organisations with 163100m+ turnover.

The larger proportion of marketers in smaller companies that say marketing has a high priority is also borne out by the higher percentage that have a member of the marketing function sitting on the company's Board. Overall, over half (57%) of the marketers surveyed say there is a marketing function on their Board but this increases to over four-fifths (82%) among those with under 1631 million turnover.

Despite most marketers asserting that marketing is a high priority in their company's business strategy, the ease with which they are able to actually secure marketing budget or funding appears to be far more mixed. Half (47%) say they find it 'very' or 'fairly' easy, yet around the same percentage (53%) say they find it 'very' or 'fairly' difficult.

It is the marketers working in smaller companies who seem to be best able to leverage the priority given to marketing in order to secure their budgets--fewer than two-fifths (38%) of these companies say that securing marketing funding is 'difficult'. By contrast, over three-fifths (61%) of marketers in the largest organisations surveyed (with 163100m+ turnover) have difficulty securing their budget.

Technical details

A total of 912 UK Chartered Institute of Marketing members completed the online questionnaire which was hosted by the independent market research organisation, Ipsos, from 6-19 March 2006. A broad cross section of organisations by sector, turnover and geographic location was achieved. The previous wave of the study was conducted in September 2005 and earlier waves were conducted by the CIM and cebr (Centre for Economic and Business Research Ltd)