The latest Duke CMO Survey (produced by professor Christine Moorman at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business) is out, giving us yet another glimpse into what’s going on in top marketers’ heads.
I went immediately to the breakdown by industry sector to see what’s happening in technology marketing. The technology sector is part of the “Tech/Software/Biotech” segment in this survey. Although the number of respondents in this category was not huge, it offers some interesting insight. I was particularly curious to see how the survey results lined up with my own, personal impressions of the technology marketing sector, based on my experience with clients.
Looking at the tech/software/biotech marketing segment, here are the things that struck me in the most current data.
Technology marketers are optimistic
The technology sector (including biotech) is more optimistic than most other segments about their own revenue prospects, as well as the economy as a whole. 71% expect customer purchase volumes to increase over the next twelve months. This is a much higher number than other industry segments, which are more pessimistic in general.
Technology companies are building customer relationships
Nearly 80% of the tech companies surveyed expected customers to buy more related products and services from their firm in the coming year. (The transportation industry was the only other industry with a similar number.) It seems to me like the CMO feels that they are nurturing relationships with existing customers, and that this will pay off.
They’re focused on product quality and innovation, not price
The marketers surveyed felt that product quality and innovation were their customers’ top priorities. Price was a lower priority.
They’re increasing marketing spending
70% of the surveyed technical marketing leaders plan to increase overall marketing spending – which makes sense if they’re optimistic. More specifically, they are increasing marketing spending on digital marketing, brand building, and new product introductions. Content marketing can be part of all three of these marketing buckets.
These finding do mesh with my experiential evidence – which is that everyone is optimistic, many new products are launching, and no one is standing still. This is the first summer since I’ve been working in the industry that there hasn’t been at least a minor summer slowdown.
Are you feeling optimistic?
Do your experiences match my impressions, and this survey data? I’d encourage you to read through the survey data yourself – I’ve only commented on a little piece of it. There’s data on social media marketing, for example, that’s worth another blog post.
Anne Janzer 