All of them are in executive positions responsible for the marketing efforts of their respective companies, with some wielding complete authority over how marketing initiatives are planned and implemented.
Perhaps the most significant finding dealt with changes in the way marketing budgets would be spent in the new fiscal year. Out of the 195 respondents, 104 said their budgets would be moving towards more direct/customer relationship management activity, while only 19 said it would be tilted towards above-the-line advertising. Seventy-two respondents said their marketing initiatives would reflect the same emphasis as last year.
The findings also found respondents were downbeat about prospects given that the poll was conducted soon after the terrorist attacks on the US.
One in three anticipate that economic recovery will take place in the third quarter of 2002. Twenty-five per cent were more negative, saying recovery would only come after 2002. Fortunately, it was not all dire: the majority (38 per cent) anticipated an improvement in their company's business performance this year. And although only one in five planned to increase their marketing budgets this year, a still sizeable number (44 per cent) said budgets would be kept intact this year.
How all these affect relationships with - and tenures of - advertising agencies isn't clear. What is clear from the poll is that the majority of clients are not entirely sure what they want from their agencies. Forty-one per cent were undecided when asked about satisfaction with their respective agencies; 30 per cent said they were satisfied while 27 per cent said no.
The theme that surfaced again and again was that of accountability. Interestingly, of the 104 respondents who said that more of their budgets would be directed to CRM activities in 2002, only 27 had moved into fee or performance-based remuneration for their respective agencies. Forty-three have yet to do so, while 30 had no idea when changes to compensation would be made.
Is the preference for CRM a knee-jerk reaction to last year's turbulence?
M&C Saatchi Hong Kong chief executive Ian Thubron says the agency is not seeing a massive change in where clients put their funds. "It's always fashionable to talk about clients 'going below-the-line' or 'diverting to direct' when times are tough,
Thubron observes. "But in reality, I believe advertising spending will be relatively constant in 2002. However, that advertising will be less of the brand-building or image-building and more tactical and retail, particularly in Hong Kong. The market here has changed in just a few years to be very short-term and sales-oriented, and the advertising you see is reflective of that."
CRM specialists though insist there's more to it than CRM being the flavour du jour during recessions and that marketers would flock back to expensive brand campaigns when recovery occurs. "We expected to see this trend and have no doubt it will continue,
insists Greg Paull, Asia-Pacific regional director of DraftWorldwide. "This year we've started working with Compaq across 12 Asian markets and added a direct response measurement to their advertising that allows them and us to evaluate our success. Frankly we see this as the fastest-growing segment in the region as marketers see it necessary to directly measure leads and conversion from their biggest external expense - advertising. Once you've collected this data, direct/CRM becomes a natural extension. We're helping clients understand the power of 're-marketing' via direct. Just because a customer makes an enquiry and doesn't buy doesn't mean he's no longer interested - how can we re-market to him and close a sale?"
Anxious agencies planning to hang out CRM skills as an additional service this year are better off studying their clients' requirements - and knowledge of the discipline - first. "It's a good buzzword,
says Danny Moorjani, regional manager of Duty Free Operations for Davidoff. "But not a lot of companies in Asia know what it really means. The CRM programmes out there are also ineffective. How can you capture the data you need? There must be payback for customers to answer all these questions."
OgilvyOne managing director, Chris Riley, says the real test for respondents will be establishing the duration they intend to make commitments in their marketing budgets towards managing customer relationships. "If this is truly a long-term transition to a changed set of business priorities for organisations, then the results are really fantastic,
he says. "We have already seen a great shift in requirements and emphasis from clients, but many are still interpreting and grappling with the issues surrounding customer management. Much of the over-promise for technology-only solutions is already generating some sense of disillusionment with customer management ROI or marketing accountability."
One sterling example of technology-only solutions that got mixed reviews would be the internet's role in marketing communications. Forty-five per cent said it was somewhat important, one in three said it was very important while 21 per cent said it was not important at all. Microsoft's director of marketing and PR, Rose Leng, attributes the tepid reception to two factors. "The industry needs to do better education and credible evangelisation for advertisers on internet marketing,
she says. "There have been a lot of misconceptions on what the internet does and cannot do. Secondly, at the height of the internet craze, there was more quantity than quality out there. Some advertisers may have tried out internet advertising without proper consultation or with sites that are not aligned with their campaign objectives.
Leng says MSN will be conducting a series of digital marketing 101 workshops this year to answer the need for internet marketing education.
According to Leng, categories such as financial services and computer-related products have been the early adopters of online marketing, and one of MSN's key focuses for 2002 is to convert "more traditional advertisers
such as packaged goods and entertainment companies to embrace digital marketing. "Many of them are on the verge," she says. "By working very closely with them in a consultative manner and offering them creative ways to experience internet marketing without assuming big risks, we would get them to be among the converted."
