March 4, 2008
Brandweek
By Elena Malykhina

More than 55% of CMOs plan to assign over 10% of their marketing budgets to personalized communications like customized content, collateral and personalized Web interaction, per a new study from the Chief Marketing Officer Council.

The Council's study, released this week and based on surveys of 700 senior marketers worldwide, found that marketing executives are gaining more confidence in personalized communications and are starting to direct more of their budgets to tactics that involve developing individualized marketing messages.

In the past, similar efforts have been unsuccessful due to several factors. Forty-nine percent of respondents said inadequate systems and infrastructure limited their personalized communication initiatives. Forty-six percent said they lacked customer data and 43% cited cost and complexity as limitations.

Nearly 44% of respondents indicated a "low" usage of personalized communications in their customer acquisition and relationship management programs. Forty-nine percent of respondents said their usage was "moderate" and only 17% said their usage was "high."

But even with challenges still looming, CMOs plan to invest more money in personalized marketing in 2008. While 55% of respondents said they plan to allocate more than 10% of this year's marketing budgets to personalized communications, 25% of respondents said they will allocate more than 20% of their marketing budgets.

Those surveyed by the CMO Council also provided various successful methods for better reaching target markets, including sending individualized e-mails and letters, permission-based marketing programs, targeted database marketing using personal profiles, personalized e-mail promotions and print on-demand collateral, among others.

Return to News Coverage>>