Packaging suppliers to ramp up ‘new media' communications

Expect more attention from packaging materials and machinery makers in coming days. Many of them plan to increase their marketing budgets—37 percent of respondents to a recent survey expect their marketing budget to rise between 5 and 25 percent, which suggests that recovery from the global financial crisis is underway and business confidence is being restored.

They've got good reason to boast: More than two-thirds (68 percent) say they plan to introduce new products and services.

According to the August 2011 report "Marketing Spend Activity, Sales Behaviors and Strategies in the Packaging Industry, 2011-2012: Survey Intelligence" from ICD Research, trade magazines are expected to continue to be a critical communication vehicle, with 45 percent indicating no change in their spending and 27 percent saying their spending will increase.

Computer monitor (Microsoft)

To give you an idea of the amount of dollars in play, the average size of the global, annual marketing budget for packaging supplier companies in 2010 was $3.2 million. For 2011, this has risen to $5.4 million.

Why the boost? Overall, 59 percent of respondents across the packaging industry are more optimistic about revenue growth for their company over the next 12 months than the previous 12 months, according to the poll.

Results for this extensive survey are drawn from ICD Research's exclusive panel of leading packaging industry executives. It analyzes how marketing expenditure, business strategies and practices are set to change in the packaging industry in 2011-12.

The report provides data on the size of marketing and advertising budgets of packaging industry supplier companies and how their spending will change, providing insight into global marketing behavior of leading industry players across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East. Information is categorized by region, company type and size.

The research not only shares the opinions and strategies of business decision makers and competitors, but also examines their business priorities. For example, customer retention, customer acquisition, and brand building and awareness were identified as key marketing aims: 62, 42 and 37 percent respectively of industry respondents cited these as "Very Important." And market intelligence research, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and competitor intelligence research emerged as the three most important areas of investment among marketing and sales solutions activities for 2012.

The ICD Research "Marketing Spend Activity, Sales Behaviors and Strategies in the Packaging Industry, 2011-2012: Survey Intelligence" report is available for $1,250 from ReportLinker.

More details, including a Table of Contents and lists of the figures/tables, can be found here.

ICD study 2011 Media Channels spending