Marketing managers survey.

Marketing teams up with Advertising Research Marketing to analyse working lives and finds all is not well in the world of the marketing manager. By Harriot Lane Fox

Cut the budget, said the money men to their beleaguered colleagues. In the early 90s, pressure mounted for accountability but marketing effectiveness is tough to prove, penny out for penny in.

Information technology advanced in leaps and bounds and with it come a tantalising glimpse at ways of communicating with customers that were both quantifiable and financially justifiable. Slowly, UK companies put in the infrastructure but, far from reinvigorating the marketing department this is bolstering the position of IT specialists.

Meanwhile, among suppliers, database consultancies fail to measure up on ability, accountability or measurability, thus hampering clients from keeping pace with response-led trends.

These are the gloomy conclusions of a survey carried out for Marketing by Advertising Research Marketing. Following our report on the working lives of brand managers (Marketing, September 28) we now take a look at more senior client-side …