â–¶ Rough Waters Breed Brand Piracy: A worldwide survey of more than 300 marketing professionals indicates that the decline of the economy and rise of digital have combined to fuel an alarming increase in brand counterfeiting, trademark violations and fraud.
The report, sponsored by the CMO Council, examines the role of brand integrity and protection in an increasingly digital climate in which brand hijackers operate systematically on a global scale. According to the study, marketers report more incidents of fraud online than off, with 29.5% marketers claiming that their primary threat is online and 22.6% citing offline. Other findings include:
• The top six market segments with the highest prevalence of abuse are digital media, luxury goods, software, footwear and apparel, Internet ecommerce and consumer electronics;
• 30.3% of respondents said their company has a specialized brand protection group with 17% choosing to outsource those efforts to a third-party provider or leaving it up to their industry trade organization;
• 27.4% of respondents reported they spend less than $100,000 on brand protection annually, and the same number reported they have no budget allocations;
• 9.8% of respondents said they’re spending more than $500,000 on brand protection, while 2.7% said they’re spending more than $5 million; and,
• 41.2% of marketers claimed that the value and integrity of brand assets suffered the greatest impact from brand corruption, followed by 35% blaming it for undermining revenue and margins, and 26.7% saying the activities raised unnecessary customer concerns and anxieties.
Source: CMO Council
â–¶ Deal Makers to Rebound in ’09: M&A is likely to pick up by the end of the year, according to a biannual survey by the Association for Corporate Growth, conducted in conjunction with Thomson Reuters.
The study suggests that although megadeals are unlikely in the near future, several midsize mergers will probably take place toward the end of 2009. The prediction is supported chiefly by the fact that the economic crisis has lowered stock prices of buyout targets to the point where they are now once again affordable. The report also showed that:
• More than 50% of those surveyed thought merger-and-acquisition activity would pick up this year;
• Nearly half of those surveyed thought bargain-basement acquisitions would make up 25% of total deal volume;
• By dollar volume, mergers and acquisitions are down 28% from the first quarter of last year;
• Sectors that are top candidates for deal making in 2009 are construction and manufacturing, healthcare and financial services;
• 33% of those surveyed blame the lack of credit for the dwindling number of deals; and,
• 76% of respondents said they expect to see improvement in the next six months.
Source: BusinessWeek
â–¶ When All Fails, PR Doesn’t: According to the 2009 ICCO World Report, in general, public relations consultants transcended the global economic downturn in 2008 by capitalizing on increased demand for crisis management professionals, brand communications, as well as increased budgets for PR specialists. Of the 22 countries polled, none saw negative revenue growth for PR consultancies. Meanwhile, emerging markets continue to expand at a rate of over 10%. Additional findings:
• Russia posted the biggest annual increase at 33%, with the lowest growth recorded in Ireland and Switzerland at less than 1%;
• The countries surveyed showed an average growth of 8.5% in 2008;
• The majority of the surveyed countries reported an increased share of client marketing spend over the previous year;
• Marketing and brand communications to consumers proved to be the largest revenue producing area for consultancies in both the U.S. and the U.K., with technology services not far behind; and,
• The top six sector-specific challenges for 2009, as identified by respondents, were shrinking client budgets, staffing, maintaining growth/profitability, client expectations, competition/price pressure and keeping up with industry change. PRN
Source: ICCO