Outlook for 2014 looks positive for marketers across the globe

Business Management, Industry News By Rhys Little, 23rd December 2013

Business conditions for global marketers are set to improve, according to new research.

The latest Global Marketing Index (GMI) by Warc indicates that although business conditions are set to improve across the globe, Europe and the Americas have the most positive outlook. Confidence in the Americas was up 1.3 points to 58.8 on the index and European optimism increased by 0.1 to 59.1, reports research-live.com. Anything above the 50 mark indicates a positive change.

The headline GMI figure was 58.6 in December, a growth of 0.8 compared to the previous month. It was also the second month of growth in a row involving staff numbers, trading conditions and marketing budgets. Furthermore, it was at it’s highest level seen since October 2011.

Global trading conditions improved to 62.7 and marketing budgets grew by 1.1 points to 57.3. Staffing levels saw a decline of 0.6 points to 55.8 though.

Suzy Young, data and journals director at Warc, commented on the findings.

“The latest GMI data are broadly consistent with last month and indicate improving business conditions for global marketers,” she said.

“It will be interesting to see if the headline GMI remains stable in the first few months of 2014 as we enter the post-holiday season and the US debt ceiling returns to the fore,” she told thedrum.com.