Although marketers believe they are making a significant impact on business, they remain resistant to the long-held perception that marketing is a cost, not an investment.
Despite being a vital path to growth for companies operating in a difficult economic environment, marketers feel the profession is still viewed as a cost rather than an investment.
According to Marketing Week's exclusive 2024 Career and Salary Survey of more than 3,000 marketers, nearly half (46.5%) of marketers say their organization has some understanding of marketing, but costs are a top priority. I agree that this is deemed to be the case.
This number is significantly higher than the 32% of marketers who feel that marketing is considered an investment and that their company fully understands it. On the other hand, his 15.2% of respondents are disappointed as they believe that marketing is not understood at all by their business.
The data shows a longstanding battle between marketing and business leadership over how important that function is to the overall strategic direction of the company.
Research reveals that only half of marketers are satisfied with their jobs. This is a pattern that continues regardless of the size of your business. For small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with fewer than 250 employees), his 43.9% of respondents believe that marketing is considered a cost. In contrast, 35% consider this function an investment and core to their company.
But the situation for large companies is even worse. Approximately 49.6% of marketers working in companies believe that marketing is considered a cost of doing business, while those who think it is considered an investment decreased significantly to 29.5%.
Data shows that 49.5% of B2B marketers feel their work is considered a cost of doing business, and only a quarter (27.4%) believe they are considered an investment . 17.1% of his B2B sample believe that marketing is not understood at all by businesses, an alarmingly high result.
Marketing Week has reported extensively on the brand-building revolution that has taken place in B2B marketing over the past decade, but our career and salary survey data shows that there is still work to be done to change perceptions about the value of marketing. Suggests.
On the other hand, people who work in B2C businesses or mixed B2B and B2C businesses are more likely to have a more positive outlook on their position in business. Almost two-fifths (38.2%) of B2C marketers believe that marketing is fully understood by businesses as an investment, but for mixed B2B and B2C marketers, this figure is 32.3% % will drop slightly.
According to the data, 44.4% of B2C marketers believe marketing is considered a cost, rising to 45.2% of B2B and B2C marketers. Only 12.9% of B2C marketers say marketing is not fully understood by their companies.
As influence grows, marketing's strategic importance increases Given that marketing is a core asset in guiding companies through difficult economic environments, nearly two-thirds of marketers (65.1 %) believe that the work they are doing is having a greater impact than before, perhaps unsurprisingly.
However, this increased importance has not translated into job security, with fewer than two-fifths (39.8%) of marketers feeling more secure in their jobs than they did a year ago.
under and over
Interestingly, respondents to the Career and Salary Survey identified marketing strategy as the most undervalued skill in the profession.
More than half (53.7%) of the 3,000 marketers surveyed said marketing strategy is the most undervalued skill by companies. This is a clear sign of the frustration marketers feel with a lack of understanding and awareness of the core fundamentals of their role. This was closely followed by brand management (46.1%) and data analytics (32.7%).
Meanwhile, the most overvalued skills identified by marketers included social media (22.5%), digital marketing (15.7%), and performance marketing (12.9%).
While marketing's influence within companies is growing, there is still a disconnect between what marketers believe is the strength of their profession and what employers believe is the value of marketing. I can't say that there is.
Marketing Week has published a series of exclusive news and features based on our 2024 Career and Salary Survey results. Click here to see all the content we've published so far.
