BR Communications, the award-winning PR and Marketing Agency in the Middle East recently conducted a survey on the ‘Marketing Budgets and Preferences’ of business organizations in the region.  The survey was administered to ascertain market appetite for marketing activities and preferences within the current economic climate. In initial results, BR Communications has gained insight into budgetary and marketing channel preferences.

On changes in marketing budgets, the results were illuminating. Encouragingly over 80% of respondents stated that a marketing budget was either very important or important to the business. Somewhat surprisingly, given the current economic climate, 43.8% of the 57.1% respondents who said the company had a marketing budget, indicated the budget had increased, while a further 31.3% indicated the marketing budget had remained unchanged. 

However, 32.1% of respondents stated a marketing budget was not utilized as firms carry out their marketing activities internally (21.4%), or utilize marketing services on an ad-hoc basis (57.1%). Another reason given for the absence of a marketing budget was because companies had made the decision to eliminate the marketing budget (21.4%).

Speaking on these results, Bahaa Fatairy, Founder and Managing Director, BR Communications, said, “Knowing the appetite of the market helps in the structuring of marketing plans to meet demands because in any economic climate getting the word out about your business and service remains an important necessity.”

A large portion of the survey addressed preferences for marketing channels and corresponding techniques. A whopping 75% of respondents indicated digital marketing techniques as a popular choice. Digital marketing was defined in the survey as marketing involving social media platforms, email, SEO and other digital methodologies. 

The next most popular techniques were those defined as content (press releases, interviews, case studies, info-graphics, and articles) and promotional (flyers, coupons) marketing (42% each).  While traditional marketing techniques (advertisements on radio, TV, print newspapers, and magazines) followed with 32% of respondents indicating the techniques are still employed for marketing needs. Results indicated mobile marketing (direct calling, WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS) as the least popular marketing technique with just 17% respondents stating their organizations use it.

“In our initial running of the survey responses, our results indicated that digital marketing techniques were still reign king amongst the techniques companies in the region use. We will continue to analyze our results and release more interesting insights on the details of each of these techniques in the near future,” commented Mr. Fatairy.

The survey administered online, and promoted through BR Communications social media profiles, received responses from companies representing a variety of industries and from various countries in the region. As such, the survey cannot be generalized to any specific locale or industry given the sample size for each industry.