Survey Indicates Companies Better Prepared for Success Now,
But Don’t Know if Marketing is Contributing to Business Goals

AUSTIN, TX, May 28, 2004 A semi-annual survey of central Texas companies by consulting firm, VisionEdge Marketing, revealed that companies showed improvement over previous years in the fundamentals required for being successful in the current economic climate.  Seventy-five percent of the companies surveyed, however, do not measure the impact that marketing has on their business goals.

In effect, the study shows the majority of the companies surveyed are blindly spending on marketing because they have not established the right metrics for linking marketing investments to business goals.

Between January and March, VisionEdge Marketing conducted the online Business Readiness Survey to examine how prepared companies are for meeting the business challenges during the first half of 2004.

For the last three years these surveys have examined issues such as: the existence of an approved marketing plan and budget, comparison of the budget to past years, stability of marketing headcount, measurement of marketing’s effectiveness, initiation of marketing plans, and prioritized goals.

Survey highlights include:

• The most common metric used by survey participants for measuring marketing was number of new deals. This metric doesn’t belong to marketing,”  said Laura Patterson, President of VisionEdge Marketing. It is really a sales metric. This finding is one of many in the survey that underscore the fact that companies are not connecting marketing to their business goals.Ó
•  Based on the respondentsÌ top-three goals for the first six months of 2004, companies are focusing more on existing customers and markets, rather than attacking new markets. The top three business goals were:  Increase revenue from existing customers (47%), capture market share in existing markets (38%), increase profitability from operations (33%).

Companies were more prepared for success in the first half of 2004 than they have been for the past two years. We view this as a positive indicator, Patterson said about the survey results. The fact that 70% of the survey participants had an approved marketing budget by mid-way through the first quarter is the good news. The bad news is 67% of the respondents had not incorporated metrics into their marketing plans in order to measure the plans impact on business goals.

The Business Readiness Report: January-June, 2004 is a semi-annual survey conducted by VEM on how businesses utilize marketing to move the company forward, and what obstacles companies are facing for achieving business results and revenue goals. The survey was distributed to 700 companies, and had a 13.5 percent response rate from 12 different industry categories.  Fifty-one percent of the respondents were primarily responsible for their companyÌs sales or marketing functions, and 65 percent held titles of director level or above.  Thirty-six percent of the respondent companies have annual revenues greater than $10 million. The report also includes recommendations on how companies can overcome some of these obstacles in order to meet revenue targets. The survey report is available for purchase online at visionedgemarketing.com for $125 plus shipping and handling.

About VisionEdge Marketing, Inc.

VisionEdge Marketing, Inc. is a marketing consulting firm that excels at helping business-to-business companies strengthen their competitive advantage to accelerate their ability to acquire, keep, and grow a profitable customer base.  With a family of cost-effective services they provide market and customer insight, identify new market opportunities, provide product and company positioning strategies, drive revenue through customer acquisition and retention initiative, and enhance marketing expertise for organizations. VisionEdge Marketing was founded in 1999 and is located in Austin, Texas.  For more information, visit visionedgemarketing.com.

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