As Recession Deepens, Top Performers Revamp Their Marketing Budgets

BOSTON, MA, Feb 12, 2009 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) --
HHS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- As companies reel from the fallout from the worst financial crisis
in recent history, chief marketing officers and other senior
marketing practitioners are under more pressure than ever to minimize
marketing waste and maximize return on marketing investment. How can
marketers continue to attract, retain and increase the value of
profitable customers even as these same customers become increasingly
reluctant to spend money? To find out, Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks
Company (NYSE: HHS), surveyed more than 250 diverse enterprises,
resulting in the new benchmark report "Recessionary Marketing: How
Best-in-Class Companies are Weathering the Storm." To access a
complimentary copy, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com//summary/report/benchmark/5728-RA-recessionary-marketing-automation.asp.

Aberdeen research reveals that 82% of companies have reallocated
their planned marketing spend for 2009 to varying degrees on account
of the recession. For only 8% of companies has the current economic
climate had no effect on their planned marketing spend. The specific
revisions that many Best-in-Class companies have made to their
original marketing plans for 2009 in response to the economic
downturn are multifaceted, affecting everything from the number,
scope and types of marketing campaigns that companies intend to
launch to the deployment of new technologies and analytic
capabilities to ensure that the campaigns that do launch achieve the
desired results.

One major trend relates to the migration of marketing spend from
high-cost channels like TV and print to low-cost channels like email
that tend to be more cost effective in yielding the desired results
and can also be more closely tracked and measured, which is
imperative from a performance management perspective. In fact,
Aberdeen research reveals that 60% of Best-in-Class companies have
cut their previously allocated marketing spend in traditional media,
18% by more than half, while 47% of Best-in-Class companies, compared
to 26% of Laggards, have increased their marketing spend on email
marketing.

The report includes a number of recommendations to help spur
performance improvements, based on the actions that Best-in-Class
companies are taking, including an increased emphasis on customer
data management and analytics to enable customer value management and
to drive precision marketing effectiveness. Recommended actions also
include the deployment of various technologies, including market
asset management systems, which reduce costs by providing seamless
asset management through content distribution workflow, mobile
marketing solutions, which can be used to reach consumers on the go
in a relevant, engaging and cost-effective manner, and lead nurturing
solutions, which can help overcome the budget freezes and longer
sales cycles that have become hallmarks of the economic downturn.

"The dismal state of the economy is causing companies everywhere to
reassess their marketing budgets," said Jeff Zabin, Research Fellow
at Aberdeen Group. "Companies need to ensure that they're allocating
their limited marketing funds in the most productive ways possible. In
many cases, this means curtailing, postponing or even eliminating
previously planned marketing expenditures. In other cases, companies
are actually investing more aggressively in various types of
marketing programs, sensing an opportunity to capitalize on the grim
economic headlines."

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due, in part,
to the following underwriters: Air2Web, Manticore Technology,
Neolane, Saepio and Silverpop. To access a complimentary copy, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com//summary/report/benchmark/5728-RA-recessionary-marketing-automation.asp

For additional access to complimentary Customer Management Research,
please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-customer-management.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked
more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness,
creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful
return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global
technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen(TM) for insights
that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting
content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing
company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer
optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity -
Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and
accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For
additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or
call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800)
456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

Copyright 2009 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com

Media Contact:
Jeff Zabin
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(847) 328-4795
jeff.zabin@aberdeen.com

SOURCE: Aberdeen Group

mailto:jeff.zabin@aberdeen.com

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