While technology has made marketing in general more effective, concerns have been raised by marketing professionals about its perception as being intrusive by customers, according to a report published by The Chartered Institute of Marketing today.
Completed for The Institute by Ipsos MORI, the Marketing Trends Survey questioned marketing professionals from a broad sector of industries and organisations.
While 77% said that technology has made marketing more effective, 69% said that it is also leading marketing in directions that customers perceive as being intrusive. Over half of respondents agreed that it was "taking us down routes that customers regard as impersonal."
Also of concern is the fact that 56% agreed that technologies that help marketers obtain and store customer information are moving ahead of marketers' understanding of the ethical and moral dilemmas they can create, while only 21% disagreed.
Nearly a third of UK business spend between 1% and 2% of their turnover on marketing, excluding salaries. Exactly one quarter spend between 3% and 5% while a significant 13% spend between 6% and 10%.
Advertising remains one of the heaviest lines on the marketing budget, and 16% said that they spent over 20% of their budget on this activity, while 12% spent 20% or more on CRM. 10% spent more than a fifth of their budget on PR.
A total of 912 UK Chartered Institute of Marketing members completed the online survey.
