For the year 2008, the tag line could be “the year of uncertainty.” The economy is on shaky ground and business is confused. Will the cost of oil continue to go up? What about the cost of health care? How will the housing melt down and the weakness of the credit industry affect business? What kind of effects will new environmental concerns have?

These macro-level challenges are causing corporate executives to think more carefully about new technologies, to try to position their companies as “green,” and to look at operations and performance across all functions.

The Business Round Table, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees, surveys its membership - the CEOs of approximately 160 of America’s leading companies - on a quarterly basis regarding their expectations for the short-term economic outlook. In the most recent survey (Q4 2007) 70% of the CEOs surveyed expect their company’s sales to increase in the next 6 months, 30% expect sales to stay the same or drop.

BtoB Magazine every year conducts a survey of business to business marketing executives discover marketing plans for the coming year. In BtoB’s “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” survey, about 63% of respondents said they planned to increase their marketing budgets in 2007; 29% said budgets would be flat, and 8% said they planned to decrease their marketing budgets.

Where does that marketing budget go? According to the American Business Media’s 2007 Forrester Research Study, 28% goes to industry specific media and events, and the rest is spread across online marketing, general business marketing, corporate websites, traditional broadcast, direct mail, and PR. (BTW, “BDM” stands for “Business Decision Makers.”

Another look at marketing trends 2008 came from the first annual survey by the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), a nearly 1,700-member organization of marketers at a VP-level or higher. ought to identify the top marketing trends in 2008.

While the marketers weighed in on many marketing concepts a few key areas emerged. Marketing basics (60% “Very Important”) which include specific concepts such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, segmentation, brand loyalty and ROI were of greatest interest. Interestingly, Search Engine Optimization (42%) had relatively wide appeal, and cut across marketers in all fields. “Green Marketing” (32%) was another important emerging concept and it was identified as the trendiest marketing buzzword.

There were 14 “main themes” identified by survey respondents, however three of the top four - Marketing Basics, Personalization, and Green Marketing - reach across the full spectrum of marketing media. As we go forward, I discuss new technology and new processes that will help marketing executives cut marketing costs without cutting marketing budgets. What does that mean? You can do a whole lot more with the same amount of funds!

Stay tuned!