By Lisa Merriam
The Marketers Confidence Index, a joint survey by the American Marketing Association and Kantar Consulting, shows that marketer optimism is ten points higher now than even six months ago. The Index measures how optimistic marketers are about customer spending, size of marketing budgets, and the climate for investment.
The increase in the July 2018 Marketers Confidence Index was driven by expectations on growing consumer spending and health marketing budgets. In January of this year, 61% of marketers believed the marketing power and influence would increase through the next few years. In the July Index, that number was up ten points—71% of marketers now believe marketing power and influence is increasing in their organizations and with consumers.
Additional areas tracked in the Index include a focus on digital. Marketers are reporting tremendous room for improvement, even decades into the digital and social revolution:
- Ability to preserve brand consistency across all media, including digital (61%)
- Integration of digital across marketing (46%)
- Equipped for the digital age (41%)
- Senior management understanding of social and digital (33%)
- Sufficient training on marketing (29%)
The ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing initiatives is still low. Only 24% of respondents are confident they are doing an adequate job.
The strong US economy is good news for marketers. Economic performance for New York City is lagging across many economic indicators. New York City’s economy grew 2.7% against national growth topping 4%.
Job growth in New York City was just under half of the national employment growth rate.
Still, the trends are positive and New York marketers influence brands with national and international reach. Though the Index isn’t broken out by region, even New York marketers have reason for optimism.
