Marketing Executives emphasize measuring spend, better id of customer preferences and needs.

Based on a recent survey of marketing professionals at North American companies, Frost & Sullivan finds that the primary business environment factors challenging the success of marketing initiatives were the global economic downturn (54% of survey respondents) and the increasing need for product/service innovation (10%).

Secondary business environment factors identified by marketing executives were decreasing customer demand (20%) and intensifying competition (17%).

The survey, conducted by Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Team Membership executive development program, sought to better understand the business environment factors and the key issues facing marketing executives in 2009. The top five key issues identified by survey participants focused on monitoring and justifying expenditures or creating new sources of revenue.

Given the economic downturn, there is increased emphasis on measuring spend (30%) and on the better identification of customer preferences and needs (30%).

“The data highlights that although budgets are being scrutinized, Marketing continues to be charged with catalyzing growth through identifying unmet customer needs, or speeding up innovation,” explains Keith O’Brien, Senior Director of Global Research for Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Team Membership program.

Marketing directors also seemed to display a rather balanced opinion of their work. While most respondents (65%) rated their marketing function effectiveness as “Good,” almost a third only rated it as “Fair” or “Poor.” Remarkably, only 4% of respondents cited their work as “Exceptional.”

More than half of the respondents to the survey work in companies with revenues of $1 billion or more, and 71% of the participants work in public companies. The Healthcare and Life sciences (20%), and Information and Communication Technologies (18%) industries had the largest participation.

For more information at http://www.frost.com