More than 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 by WPP Lightspeed reported by B2B Marketing magazine.

When surveyed, most finance bosses said they believed undertaking such action would help their company to gain market share as the economy recovered. 84% of FDs favoured the idea of further investment in marketing and customer analysis as a way of countering the downturn.

Sectors that exceeded this national average included; banking, insurance and finance at 89 percent, travel and transport at 90 percent, utilities and telecommunications at 91 percent and, crucially, IT communications and hi-tech at 93 percent. Respondents from larger businesses were significantly more supportive of investment than their smaller business counterparts.

So it appears the potential for maintaining and even increasing marketing budget remains. But marketers will need to demonstrate prudent choices, healthy pipeline and ultimately a superb return on investment.