Marketing Executives Shifting Budgets to Become Customer-Focused
A new study from the Leapfrog Marketing Institute, part of Leapfrog Online, found that 81 percent of marketing executives are shifting their budgets to become more customer-focused (vs. channel or product-focused).
According to the data, 52 percent of the participants claimed that they will achieve this change in budget allocation by “focusing on ‘Consumer Life Stages:’ (acquisition, retention, loyalty, CRM, etc).”
Leapfrog’s study, titled “2015 Planning Report Evolving Strategic and Financial Plans for the Always-On Consumer,” was comprised of respondents mainly in marketing, who were responsible for, or were influencers of budget decisions for their company.
ROI Accountibility
In addition to a large focus on a customer-centric marketing approach, the study also found that the majority of marketing budgets (and their resulting increase or decrease) is dependent on success, usually measured by ROI:
As shown in the chart above, 40 percent (the majority) said that more than 75 percent of their marketing budget is dependent on their ROI.
Jim Carey, Adjunct Professor/ Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Integrated Marketing Communications Program, says about the study’s findings, “As marketers get better at measuring outcomes, and as they work hard to measure ROI, they are re-sorting their marketing investments from the clear losers to the winners. They are acting more like portfolio managers, allocating marketing resources dynamically across a range of opportunities. That’s allowing them to get more bang for the same buck.”
Leapfrog’s Recommendations
At the end of the study, Leapfrog gave a few recommendations to marketers that hope to translate their study findings into their own marketing efforts:
- Know your KPIs, which are of general consensus with your team and management
- Better identify consumers– through audience research and segmentation
- Clear ownership of consumer touch points throughout their purchasing journey