A new survey suggests companies will be increasingly likely to use merchandise and incentive programs in 2010, largely because of expanding budgets and a willingness to spend recently untapped funds. Data from the New York-based Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) shows 32% of corporate professionals expect an uptick in incentive programs this year, while 34% anticipate unchanged spending.
“Cautiously optimistic is the term I would use to describe the overall message in the data from the survey,” says Mark Peterman, chairman of the IRF Research Committee. “Our sense is that companies may have been sitting on budgets for the past 10 months or so waiting to see how things were going to play out and whether there was going to be more pushback from the media and community regarding incentives.”
For incentive travel programs, 16% of respondents believe budgets will go up in 2010, with 30% saying they expect budgets to remain unchanged. Within awards programs, 27% of those surveyed see a boost in the use of gift cards, while 18% plan to add merchandise to their offerings. Additionally, while 34% of planners still point to the slowly-recovering economy as having a negative impact on incentive programs, there is greater optimism than in other recent surveys. For example, in October of 2008, 50% of respondents viewed the economy as a serious detriment to incentive programs.
About IRF
The Incentive Research Foundation funds and promotes research to advance the science, enhance the awareness and appropriate application of motivation and incentives in business and industry globally. The goal is to increase the understanding, effective use and resultant benefits of incentives to businesses that currently use incentives and others interested in improved performance.
