Over 90 percent of UK finance directors in the B2B sector support the idea that companies should ‘market' their way out of the recession, according to new research.

Contrary to popular belief, most finance bosses surveyed by WPP Lightspeed Research said that such action would help a company to gain market share as the economy recovered.

The research, which was carried out on marketing consultancy KDB's behalf, surveyed 1000 UK directors. The results showed that more than four out of five favoured the idea of further investment in marketing and customer analysis as a way of countering the downturn.

"This survey shows that finance directors do understand the historic importance of marketing through a recession," says Matt Boot, chief analyst at KDB. "People often assume that those holding the corporate purse strings are totally against spending on marketing, but as this survey indicates, they are for it when the money is spent effectively.

"What finance directors do want is ROI and accountability from their marketing departments if they are going to maintain or even boost budgets at a time when they have to watch every penny closely."

The survey which covered firms of different sizes, in various key industry sectors across the UK showed that 84 percent of respondents believed that strengthening marketing investment and customer insight were important in current circumstances.

Sectors that exceeded the national average included; banking, insurance and finance at 89 percent, IT communications and hi-tech at 93 percent, travel and transport at 90 percent, and utilities and telecommunications at 91 percent.

Respondents from big business were significantly more supportive of investment than directors at smaller business.

"Companies have to put their money where there mouth is where marketing is concerned if they really want to emerge from the current downturn in a position to gain ground on competitors", adds Boot.

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