53% of CFOs say they expect to increase the marketing budget by at least 3%. The rest plan on keeping it at current levels or cutting.
Slightly more than half (53%) of CFOs expect to increase their marketing budgets by at least 3% this year, according to a Gartner survey of 300 top financial executives. Some 21% are planning on level funding, while 25% predict they will cut the marketing budget by at least 3%.
“CFOs are most polarized in this area with one quarter planning large increases in marketing of 10% or more, another quarter planning cuts, and the remaining half sitting somewhere in between,” said Alexander Bant, chief of research in the Gartner Finance practice, in a statement. “CFOs do not want to scale marketing down at the wrong time in the business cycle.”
Why we care. CFOs’ split decision about marketing is an example of how confusing the economy is right now. On the one hand we have a slew of things indicating trouble: job cuts, banking problems and rising interest rates. On the other we have a very low unemployment rate, wage increases and, in some sectors, increased consumer spending. For more than a year we’ve been told a recession is right around the corner, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
In context. It’s important to note that this is a vast improvement from last June, when Gartner found eight in 10 CFOs planning to cut the marketing budget in the first half of 2023. Additionally, of the 43% expecting to send more money to marketing, more than half indicated it would be a double-digit increase.
Marketing in the middle. Marketing is exactly in the middle of nine corporate functions CFOs will give double-digit budget increases to. At the top are sales (34%) and corporate IT (29%). At the bottom: human resources (17%) and legal & compliance (13%).
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