Incentive's Complete 2011 Merchandise IQ Survey

There was some heartening news in Incentive’s 2011 Merchandise IQ survey, mirroring the growing sense that the economy as a whole is strengthening. 

This year, the number of respondents who said their companies’ merchandise awards budgets increased over the past year was 30 percent, nearly twice the number who said the same thing in 2010. And the percentage of those whose per-recipient spend increased was up by nearly one-third. 

In addition, the largest programs—those with annual budgets of more than $1 million—were also up by nearly one-third. 

Far fewer recipients said they were planning to replace travel programs with merchandise incentive awards this year than last year—less than 10 percent in our 2011 report versus more than 40 percent in the 2010 Merchandise IQ survey—but that reflects the fact that corporations are growing far less worried about the potential negative publicity that virtually paralyzed the incentive travel market in the past few years. 

This survey was based on responses from 219 subscribers to the print and digital editions of Incentive magazine and its online newsletters.