Marketers Optimistic Yet Cautious About 2012 Spending

In April 2012, Avant Marketing Group solicited participation in an online poll with 350
Marketing Executives from the Agricultural, Manufacturing and Financial Services business
segments.

The results of the poll reflect that the majority of respondents planned for an improved 2012
sales year with 1st quarter results tracking to forecast. In addition, the majority of
respondents expect year-end sales to either meet or exceed expectations – yet over half have
been conservative and cautious with marketing spending and less than one-third are planning
on adding marketing staff to their organization.

1. Sixty-eight (67.6%) of respondents forecasted increased sales in 2012
compared to 2011 actual. Another 29.4% forecasted flat sales and 2.9%
forecasted decreased sales.


2. Based on 2012 1st Quarter results, 67.6% of respondents state that sales
are tracking to forecast, 14.7% state that sales are higher than forecast
and 17.6% state that sales are lower than forecast.


3. Similarly, 67.6% of respondents expect total 2012 sales to meet
forecast, 26.5% expect sales to exceed forecast and 5.9% expect sales to
be lower than forecast.


4. Ironically, 55.9% of respondents state that they have been
conservative and cautious in their marketing investment so far into 2012
– waiting until they have a good read on the economy. Another 26.5%
have been confident and are aggressively investing their marketing
budget. In addition, 14.7% have already increased their marketing
budget and 2.9% have already decreased their marketing budget.

For a copy of the full research report, contact Mark Vogel: vogelm@avantmarketing.com.