I was drawn to this article in the January issue of ZIUA CARGO magazine, which presents the results of the sixth edition of the Entrepreneurial Financial Reporting study, conducted by Trusted Advisor Strategy & Finance.
According to the study, 36% of participating entrepreneurs consider marketing budgets for 2026 a priority, compared to 22% in 2025. This is even a higher priority than salaries—a first in this study.
Since founding Drivion, a strategic marketing agency specializing in the transport and logistics industry, I have spoken with many entrepreneurs about marketing, budgets, and priorities. My mentality has always been and remains 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 coordinating marketing budgets within large organizations, in an extremely competitive and deeply price-oriented industry, I know that budgets did not automatically increase from one year to the next. Marketing did not have the privilege of functioning on inertia or mechanically replicating what others were doing in the market.
This is precisely why I constantly sought applied, sometimes courageous marketing actions, aligned with the core business and operational reality, but which avoided the comfortable and predictable path followed by most industry players.
There were times when this meant investing time and energy in initiatives that were not yet „on trend,” such as tree planting actions carried out together with clients, during a period when sustainability was not a sales topic, but rather a quiet effort, hard to explain in Excel, but extremely valuable in the relationship with partners.
I made decisions to build constant communication systems with clients—from direct WhatsApp channels, to blogs with applied and free information, or repetitive, almost exhausting explanations about taxes, routes, constraints, and solutions—in an industry where communication most often only appears when something goes wrong.
We also had activations at industry conferences and events: stands designed differently, which did not rely on volume or noise, but on clarity, conversation, and relevance. All of these required a consistent effort, not just financial, but also time, energy, and real involvement from the teams.
I have detailed all this to emphasize a simple thing: none of these actions were simple, cheap, or “fast.” All required assumption, patience, and the ability to explain, including internally, why we were not following the exact same recipe as everyone else.
A banner on the website or a Facebook post does not solve every problem. Word.
Today, as a consultant, I frequently meet marketing people under similar pressure, but in a much more volatile context. The dynamics of marketing are accelerated, instruments change quickly, and the temptation to repeat past actions is greater than ever. After all, these are recipes that worked, so why not apply them again?
Because it is no longer enough to do what worked three or five years ago. The public is more informed, more saturated with messages, and much 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 that stems from a business pressure. A pressure that is directly visible in the numbers.
When something doesn’t work, the first temptation is either to do more of what you’re already doing, or to try new things you’ve seen others do or that are „fashionable.” Unfortunately, neither of these approaches represents the saving solution.
Being a good marketing professional today, especially in transport and logistics, no longer means running more campaigns or checking off more channels, but having the capacity 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 does not allow for broad experiments.
Marketing must be a sustained effort, not a reaction to a problem.
All the courageous and different actions I applied throughout my career were planned for the medium and long term, not as reactions to specific market pressures. I invested in relationships, in trust, and in the ability to keep the brand relevant in an environment where price was and is a decisive factor.
This lesson remains valid today: effective marketing involves constant effort, not sporadic bursts of visibility. It means being present and coherent even during periods when immediate results do not appear, because that is precisely when the capital of trust is built that matters when the market tightens.
In a difficult year, with pressure on price, less freight, and excess capacity, marketing should neither be the automatically sacrificed area nor the artificially inflated one. 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 do not increase, and the market does not forgive mistakes. And that requires professionalism, courage, and the ability to think beyond ready-made recipes.
I return to the initial question: is it true that, in 2026, marketing surpasses salaries in the top priorities?
I believe the explanation is more nuanced. Entrepreneurs are prioritizing marketing because its absence or insufficiency has caught up with the industry. If not long ago marketing was perceived as nice to have, more and more people now see it as a must have.
But an essential question remains: what does marketing mean for the industry? More events with roll-ups? More Facebook posts? More TikTok videos?
The answer is, as Roxana always likes to say, it depends. All of these can be valid tactics, but only when they derive from a clear marketing and communication strategy. And the marketing strategy, in turn, derives from the brand strategy, which serves the business strategy.
Honestly, I would be enormously happy if the transport and logistics industry quickly catches up in prioritizing marketing budgets. But after 20 years of experience here, I know that „more” does not automatically mean „better,” not even when we talk about budgets.
Without a clear direction, without a well-defined and well-implemented strategy, the increase in marketing budgets will not only fail to generate the expected results, but will also frustrate entrepreneurs and affect the perception of marketing as a business function.Long-distance marketing.
That’s what the transport and logistics industry in Romania needs.