Marketing Ideas From
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Cutting Costs While
Maintaining Marketing Spending
PROMOAID IN THE PRESS

"PromoAid has built a Web-based database containing hundreds of promotion suppliers, each with 30 data points. And, more importantly, it's easily searchable."

-Progressive Grocer,
June 2009
(link to full article below)

Survey Results
 
1.  Which of the following has your organization focused on in light of the current economic downturn?        

Reducing the number of planned marketing / promotional initiatives: 56%

Doing more work in-house: 12%

Consolidating work at outside vendors, eliminating some vendors: 48%

Renegotiating contractual terms with one or more vendors: 48%


2.  Which of the following best describes your organization's recent change in expectations for agencies?    
      
Perform tasks that had been executed internally in the past: 24%

Provide multiple vendor proposals for each program execution: 44%

Research and evaluate new vendors and their programs: 48%

We don't use agencies: 16%


3.  When evaluating marketing programs, what is the most important factor that you consider?

Ability to provide a positive
ROI: 84%

Historical results: 36%

If the provider presents itself as a "partner" or "vendor.": 20%

Service/reputation: 20%


4.  What is the main objective of your current marketing campaign(s)?
        
Increase brand awareness
and brand equity: 28%

Stimulate trial: 32%

Increase purchase frequency: 28%

Promote value / cost savings: 4%

All of the above: 52%
  

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Greetings!
Last month PromoAid conducted a survey to learn more about how the economy is impacting spending on marketing programs. Results are in the left column below. Not surprisingly we found that marketers are looking for ways to cut costs.  The challenge is to find a way to cut back without curtailing the marketing efforts that support the brand and product sales.

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Maintain spending?
For marketing companies grappling with the current recession, John Quelch, a Harvard Business School professor, offers some critical advice: maintain marketing spending.  "It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times," Quelch says.

Broad cutbacks
Yet companies are struggling in the face of declining revenues. A recent poll by the Association of National Advertisers revealed that 93% of respondents were cutting costs in light of the downturn.  

Our own PromoAid survey conducted last month affirmed this trend and shed light on specific cost cutting measures (see results to the left).

More than half of the survey respondents said they are cutting back on the number of marketing and promotional programs.  An almost equal number revealed they had renegotiated their agency contracts, altering their compensation structure.  

An Adweek article last month detailed how Unilever had joined InBev Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola in asking their agency for structural changes in they way they are compensated.  Unilever told its agencies they have to accept an upfront profit margin of 5 percent, half of the previous base margin of 10 percent.

An arrangement that works
It's critical for both sides that marketers and their agencies arrive at an arrangement that works. "Clients have never had a higher demand for big ideas, greater creativity and innovation," said a source in the Adweek story.  

Yet marketers are looking at new ways to trim costs.  Our survey found that nearly half of marketers are asking their agencies to provide multiple vender proposals for each program execution and also have their agencies research and evaluate new vendors and programs.

PromoAid can help
A resource like PromoAid, which helps marketing companies and their agencies identify and evaluate marketing service vendors, can play a vital role when marketers are advised to "maintain marketing spending."


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More Than Just A Marketing Directory

The Problem
There are thousands of marketing service companies nationwide. They offer a host of different marketing and promotional programs and specialties. Finding the right marketing company to fit your needs can take countless hours and rifling through your dusty file cabinet filled with dated media kits isn't the solution.

The Solution
PromoAid, a one of a kind marketing directory platform where you can find and compare up to 30 data points across hundreds of top-tier marketing service vendors side by side in one place.

The PromoAid answer is threefold:

1. Direct access to our licensed website
2. Cold call screening
3. Custom quick search

For more information visit PromoAid or call: (847) 425-1580.
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