Marketing professionals in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry have nominated brand positioning as their primary marketing challenge in 2006, according to a new survey.

Results from the Australian Information Industry Association’s (AIIA’s) first Marketing Benchmarking Survey indicate a strongly competitive market, but one in which economic outlook and market restrictions were not obstacles to gaining market share.

Instead, 30% of survey respondents nominated brand positioning as their primary marketing challenge this year, with 52% placing branding on their list of top three challenges, followed by increased competition and lead management (both 34%). These challenges were consistent across small, medium and large organisations.

According to Kathryn Porritt, AIIA’s general manager – marketing and business services, the survey reinforces the general feeling that there is little market resistance to ICT in general, but much marketing effort is spent on encouraging the customer to “buy from us”.

“Today, branding is not simply the focus of marketing and PR initiatives, but an integrated part of an ICT enterprise’s business strategy, customer relationship management focus and employee retention strategy,” says Ms Porritt, “These survey results reflect the emphasis that ICT companies are placing on branding."

In particular, the survey reveals that ICT marketing is focused on direct contact with the market compared with other sectors in the economy, with events, trade shows and corporate hospitality often attracting 15% or more of a single budget.

“While marketers in many other industries assign a significant percentage of marketing expenditure to advertising, ICT marketers spend more of their marketing budgets on personal relationship building,” Ms Porritt says.

Tricia Deasy from Australian Survey Research, the research company that helped design the benchmarking study, said that the most important objectives for most companies are customer retention and acquisition, increasing market share and measuring market results.

“This indicates a strongly competitive market where ICT companies are working with current products and an existing customer base, rather than focusing on developing new products or markets,” Ms Deasy says.

The Marketing Benchmarking Survey is AIIA’s first review of the Australian ICT industry’s marketing functions.

Findings are based on information from AIIA member organisations across the breadth of the industry, with survey participants from a wide cross-section of organisations in terms of size, number of employees, sub-industry and revenue.

The annual survey will be used by AIIA member companies to develop marketing strategies and benchmark their activities against best practice in the industry. The next survey will be released in October 2006.