This article from the January issue of ZIUA CARGO caught my attention, presenting the results of the sixth edition of the Financial Reporting for Entrepreneurs study, conducted by Trusted Advisor Strategy & Finance.
According to it, 36% of the participating entrepreneurs consider marketing budgets for 2026 a priority, compared to 22% in 2025. More than that, they rank it as a higher priority than salaries – a first in the history of this study.
Since founding Drivion, a strategic marketing agency specialized in the transport and logistics industry, I’ve spoken with many entrepreneurs about marketing, budgets, and priorities. My mindset has always been – and still is – that of a client, a marketing director, not a service provider or consultant. I felt the duality instantly, but not in the way you might expect.
After many years of managing marketing budgets within large organizations, in a highly competitive and deeply price-driven industry, I know that budgets didn’t automatically increase year after year. Marketing didn’t have the privilege of running on inertia or mechanically replicating what others in the market were doing.
That’s precisely why I constantly looked for applied marketing actions – sometimes bold – aligned with the core business and operational reality, but avoiding the comfortable and predictable path followed by most players in the industry.
There were moments when this meant investing time and energy in initiatives that weren’t yet “on trend,” such as tree-planting actions carried out together with clients, at a time when sustainability wasn’t a selling point, but rather a quiet effort – hard to justify in Excel, yet extremely valuable in relationships with partners.
We made decisions to build consistent communication systems with clients – from direct WhatsApp channels to blogs with practical, free information, or repetitive, almost tiring explanations about taxes, routes, constraints, and solutions – in an industry where communication usually appears only when something goes wrong.
We also had activations at conferences and industry events: booths designed differently, focusing not on volume or noise, but on clarity, conversation, and relevance. All of these required significant effort – not just financial, but also in terms of time, energy, and real involvement from the teams.
I’ve detailed all this to highlight one simple thing: none of these actions were easy, cheap, or “quick wins.” All required commitment, patience, and the ability to explain – even internally – why we weren’t following the exact same recipe as everyone else.
A website banner or a Facebook post doesn’t solve every problem. Truly.
Today, from the position of a consultant, I often meet marketing professionals under similar pressure, but in a much more volatile context. Marketing dynamics are faster, tools change rapidly, and the temptation to repeat past actions is greater than ever. After all, if something worked before, why not do it again?
Because it’s no longer enough to do what worked three or five years ago. Audiences are more informed, more saturated with messages, and far more attentive to the consistency between what you say and what you deliver.
At the same time, the market feels an acute need for marketing – but one driven by business pressure. A pressure that is directly visible in the numbers.
When something doesn’t work, the first instinct is either to do more of the same or to try new things you’ve seen others do or that are “trendy.” Unfortunately, neither approach is a silver bullet.
Being a good marketing professional today – especially in transport and logistics – no longer means running more campaigns or ticking more channels, but having the ability to make uncomfortable decisions: to stop initiatives that no longer work, to explain to management why “more” is not the solution, and to rebuild direction even when the budget doesn’t allow for large experiments.
Marketing must be a sustained effort, not a reaction to a problem.
All the bold and different actions I’ve applied throughout my career were designed for the medium and long term, not as reactions to short-term market pressure. We invested in relationships, in trust, and in the ability to keep the brand relevant in an environment where price was – and still is – a decisive factor.
This lesson still holds true today: effective marketing requires consistency, not sporadic bursts of visibility. It requires being present and coherent even in periods without immediate results – because that’s when the trust capital is built, the one that matters when the market tightens.
In a difficult year, with pressure on prices, less freight, and excess capacity, marketing should be neither the first area to be cut nor the one artificially inflated. It should be the space where the most mature business decisions are made.
Because marketing is not about making more noise, but about building relevance, differentiation, and real relationships – even when budgets don’t grow and the market doesn’t forgive mistakes. And that requires professionalism, courage, and the ability to think beyond ready-made recipes.
So I return to the initial question: in 2026, does marketing really surpass salaries in the list of priorities?
I believe the explanation is more nuanced. Entrepreneurs prioritize marketing because its absence – or insufficiency – has caught up with the industry. If not long ago marketing was perceived as a “nice to have,” more and more now see it as a “must have.”
But one essential question remains: what does marketing actually mean for the industry? More events with roll-ups? More Facebook posts? More TikTok videos?
The answer is, as Roxana often says, it depends. All of these can be valid tactics – but only when they derive from a clear marketing and communication strategy. And that strategy, in turn, derives from the brand strategy, which serves the business strategy.
Honestly, I would be thrilled for the transport and logistics industry to quickly catch up in prioritizing marketing budgets. But after 20 years of experience here, I know that “more” doesn’t automatically mean “better” – not even when we’re talking about budgets.
Without a clear direction, without a well-defined and properly implemented strategy, increasing marketing budgets will not only fail to deliver the expected results – it will frustrate entrepreneurs and damage the perception of marketing as a business function.Long-haul marketing.
That’s what the transport and logistics industry in Romania truly needs.