Abstract
The main purpose of this research is to identify what factors influence marketing decision-makers operating in the Financial Services and Food & Beverage industries in Ireland during the budget allocation decision-making process. It also aims to examine their rationale for choosing such factors. Moreover, this paper intends to present key trends and patterns emerging from budget allocation to digital and traditional marketing in the above-stated industries in Ireland.
The findings of this research were collected by online and phone questionnaires and the research combines quantitative as well as qualitative research methods.
The main finding of this study identified that within three main factors (‘own intuition’, ‘data evidence’ and ‘combination of both’) that influence marketing decision-makers in their budget-allocation process, the combination of both is the most popular. Moreover, the research also revealed that despite choosing a combination of intuition and data, respondents from Financial Services weigh their decisions mainly on data evidence. However, those operating in Food & Beverage use mainly their experience and intuition when deciding on budget allocation. Other findings demonstrate that there is no significant difference between the number of companies that increased, decreased or sustained traditional marketing while also increasing digital marketing spending within the Financial Services and Food & Beverage industries in Ireland. The study also showed that despite a growing trend of increasing digital marketing budgets across the above-mentioned industries, traditional marketing spending outperforms digital. The vast majority of surveyed companies still invest most of their money in traditional marketing activities.
Finally, recommendations for further research are given in order to gain in-depth understanding of differences in budget allocation between Financial Services and Food & Beverages industries in Ireland, as well as to reveal more factors that may influence marketing decision-makers during their budget-allocation process. Author keywords: Factors influencing marketing budget decisions, marketing budget allocation, decision making process
