Short courses are currently leading the way in marketing training and development / CIM

Marketers move to short courses to upskill   -  Tighter marketing budgets require marketers to become more versatile -  Businesses identify a need for broad generalists -        

Diversification of skills has tightened resources as teams ‘do more with less’  

Short courses are currently leading the way in marketing training and development allowing businesses to upskill their marketing departments on a smaller training budget, The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has found.  

The Institute’s single or two day courses in particular are rapidly gaining popularity as the recession busting alternative for staff development. Short courses now account for almost 81 per cent of all training provided by CIM showing that businesses are recognising the value of condensed and intensive training.

Online qualification programmes are also proving a popular alternative as students opt for distance learning and companies bring CIM training modules for in-house delivery.  

For businesses keen to reduce their outlay on training, online or onsite learning offers an ideal alternative that enables businesses to reduce costs and maintain their training record.   Tightened resources and the exponential growth of digital marketing have led to a growing need and desire for more versatile marketers.

The industry is now seeking broader generalists rather than single area specialists as more than ever today, marketing managers need to be able to adapt to increasing responsibilities on a smaller budget.   The diversification of marketer’s skills is in turn reflected in the growth of digital marketing courses.

Social Media Benchmark*

According to the latest results from the Institute’s Social Media Benchmark* released this month, over 90 per cent of UK marketers say they lack the skills or the competencies to implement their social media strategies successfully. Marketing departments are therefore seeing the value of digital training as it provides a way for more senior and experienced marketers to incorporate the latest trends in marketing into their portfolio.  

David Thorp, director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing, said: “Digital marketing has seen the largest growth and remains the discipline with the greatest uptake of courses. As marketers work harder to glean intelligence from data sourced through the ever-growing number of digital channels, there is greater demand for data analytics skills. It is important that marketers incorporate these skills into their portfolio to ensure that the business is not needlessly replicating functions and wasting money.”   

For further information on the CIM Training Directory and new course listings, please visit www.cim.co.uk/training   

Which marketing theory shapes your marketing strategy? Which model has given you the greatest campaign return?

Which model has helped you out-manoeuvre your competitors? Which marketing theory shapes your marketing strategy? Which model has given you the greatest campaign return?

To mark the centenary of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute’s Greater London region has set out to find the most valuable marketing model from the past 100 years. The online poll, available to complete here*, asks marketers to vote for the marketing model they think is the most valuable to marketers today.

Voters can choose from 12 models; from the fundamental core tactics of the ‘Seven Ps’ through to more complex models such as the Boston Consulting Group Matrix or Porter’s Five Forces. For inspiration, see what the experts have to say in these interviews: www.youtube.com/thecimtube

All voters are invited to enter a prize draw for a chance to win a copy of Professor Laurie Young’s new book, The Handbook of Marketing Techniques: Explanation, Analysis, Appropriateness and Application (Wiley), which looks at the use of marketing models in a world of marketing change, assessing their application and usefulness for today’s marketers.

Votes close on 30 June with the final verdict on the most valued marketing model, and prize draw winners, announced in July 2011.

CIM calls for regulation ‘in the spirit of the Olympics; not the letter of the law / The Chartered Institute of Marketing

- London 2012 regulation could criminalise standard business and marketing practice

- Businesses at risk of falling foul of stringent regulations

- CIM calls for regulation ‘in the spirit of the Olympics; not the letter of the law’

 

London 7 April 2011: London 2012 regulation could see marketers falling foul of legislation and being criminalised for standard business practice, The Chartered Institute of Marketing warns in its new paper launched this week.

Regulations under consultation by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) could see rulings introduced ahead of the 2012 Games which prevent businesses benefitting from a reflective association to the Games – a move that could be catastrophic to the business practices of thousands, the Institute advises. Similar rulings were introduced in the South Africa World Cup, with criminal charges newly introduced to cover ‘ambush’ offences.

London 2012 organisers have raised concerns about ‘ambush marketing’, whereby organisations look to capitalise on awareness, attention, goodwill and other benefits generated by having an association with an event. The Institute’s paper, Ambush Marketing and the Law, considers how companies can gain reflective economic benefit from the Games, which Visit Britain estimates will generate £1.5bn revenues in tourism alone, without flouting the law.

Roderick Wilkes, chief executive of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, comments, “Britain’s businesses could miss their seat at ‘the greatest show on earth’ unless a rational balance is struck between sponsors and non-sponsor.

Student marketers in the East of England get fired up for 'Apprentice-style' challenge

To learn more about The Chartered Institute of Marketing, visit www.cim.co.uk.

For more information about The Pitch East, visit http://www.thepitcheast.co.uk. 

Marketing students in the East of England are getting ready to prove their business nous as they take on an ‘apprentice-style’ challenge with The Chartered Institute of Marketing for the chance to win a placement at leading Cambridge-based integrated marketing agency, Professional Diploma in Marketing

WARNING: Nuts - may contain nuts. Has marketing regulation gone nutty? CIM

The Chartered Institute of Marketing kicked off its centenary celebrations this week with a House of Commons debate on the motion 'A century of marketing legislation restricts everyone whilst protecting nobody'. Despite a strong case put forward for the motion, the audience voted overwhelmingly against. While marketers do find regulation cumbersome at times, it is clear that the industry is broadly in support of the last century of marketing legislation.

Alan Stevens, The Media Coach and President of the Global Speakers opened the debate speaking for the motion, noting that 61% of marketers think that the industry is over-regulated, and 94% expected this to get worse. He suggested that marketing legislation is ineffective, and that ‘rogue traders’ will find a way to get around it. Word of mouth, said Mr Stevens, is much more powerful:

“What people say, and which people say it, has a far greater impact than legislation. Take eggs for example, which have been regulated by the most stringent European law to ensure their safety since 1973. But when Edwina Currie asserted that most eggs contain salmonella, egg sales dropped by 60.”

Like his debating partner, Jeremy Jacobs, the award-winning speaker and presenter, also argued that marketing legislation had gone “beyond common sense”, using the archetypal example of packets of nuts carrying the warning “may contain nuts”. As one audience member pointed out, such legislation serves only to make them “feel stupid” and will in fact have a detrimental impact on their relationship with the brand in question.

CIM and Deloitte : "What's the point of measuring marketing if companies are not going to take decisions based on that insight?"

New research from The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Deloitte finds that 49% of companies are not using customer or marketing measures to inform board level decision making.  Improving Marketing Effectiveness: leading practices in marketing accountability investigates how companies measure the performance of marketing and act upon the results. At the heart of the research is a quantitative benchmarking assessment of over 200 senior marketers and board level executives.