During April 2020, Brand Reveal conducted the “Day After” survey to understand the impact of the C19 crisis on the Marketing Mix of wines and spirits. This sixth article (and last out of 6) highlights the views of 79 industry professionals on Budget & Resources management . The key message : let’s work better.
Budgets and resources are never easy to increase, and this is also true in these C19 times: the majority of responses from the survey show an unwillingness to increase marketing resources with only 1 out 5 respondents planning to increase budgets and only 1 out 10 planning to hire more marketing people OR sales people. On the other hand, it is worth noting that 1/5th of respondents are willing to increase budgets, and this shows some confidence in the future.
The crisis does not seem to have reshuffled relations between creative agencies and brands as more than half are not willing to pitch for new agencies. Conversely, this may also highlight a certain aversion to risk on unknown partners. Last, and not negligible, the overall high level of “don’t know” (nearly 25%) on these questions shows the current management uncertainty and probably freeze / cut situations.
With more than 70% of respondents calling for a reinforcement of Marketing and Sales Synergies, the crisis seems does not seem dent this holy mantra many organisations look for, and more than ever dictated by the revenue needs of this fiscal year.
The crisis also triggers a review of investments priorities across brands portfolio with more than 75% of respondents declaring they will reassess the investment priorities. We suspect that this will benefit many “standard” or “low price” brands given the impact of living standards, but also a move towards more “affiliative & reassuring” vs. “indulgent & show off” consumptions.
The Crisis is awakening interest for a discipline which is not always on top of agendas: “Scenario Planning”. Well, nobody saw the Crisis coming and the sales crash in many companies… Now at least 2/3 of respondents declare willing to develop scenarios based plans.
Last, there a high interest to put more resources to understand the effects of the crisis on consumers. This is laudable as a better consumer knowledge is the path for actionable insights.
Whilst the C19 crisis is having a strong impact on the short term sales of many Wines and Spirits companies, the Survey shows optimism in the future and trust in brands. The situation also shows a readiness to change ways of working: looking at the opinions expressed on product Development, Communication, Pricing, Distribution and Resources, there is an overall wish to do things better. This is encouraging as the vast majority of the Survey respondents are in Leadership Positions.
Brand Reveal would like to extend specials thanks to the 79 respondents who took time from their schedule to participate to the Day After survey: the results and insight are worth every effort in these changing times.