Blackfriars Marketing Index For The Third Quarter Falls To 136.
MAYNARD, Mass., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Communications and research
consultants Blackfriars Communications, Inc. (Blackfriars) today announced
that it projects marketing spending at U.S. businesses will be nearly $615
billion this year. This forecast is down $385 billion from 2005. In
Blackfriars' second annual sizing of the U.S. marketing market, it found
that 2006 marketing spending dropped to 4.7% of revenue this year from 8.9%
last year. The manufacturing industry again spent the most on marketing in
2006 with spending of $59 billion.
Blackfriars also announced that it has set the Blackfriars Marketing
Index at 136 for the third quarter of 2006. The Q3 index indicates that US
companies expect to spend 36 percent more on marketing this quarter than
they spent in an average quarter in 2005. Blackfriars also set its second
quarter 2006 index of actual spending at 78, 68 points below the budgeted
value in June. A graph of the last eleven quarters of Blackfriars Marketing
Indices can be found at:
http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/m06q3-index-graph.jpg.
"Marketing has struggled because of bad weather and higher fuel prices
over the past twelve months," said Carl Howe, a principal of Blackfriars.
"But if marketing were an industry, the $615 billion spent on marketing
this year would still make it the ninth largest industry in the United
States. It remains larger than the entire U.S. information and media
industry."
To perform this research, Blackfriars collected data from 317 senior
business executives about their marketing budgets, attitudes, and spending.
Blackfriars then correlated this data with overall business spending from
the 2002 U.S. Census and with gross domestic product data from the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Survey Shows Online Marketing's Growth Tempering
A key finding of the survey was that advertising spending has fallen to
$218 billion this year, of which $38 billion comprises online advertising.
Online advertising is expected to consume seven percent of budgets, down
from ten percent at the beginning of the year.
"Companies are cutting back on all forms of marketing from last year,"
said Howe. "But as they cut their budgets, they fall back on more
traditional media and strategies. That's really too bad, because the
measurability of online marketing allows executives to clearly demonstrate
its value. That can be much harder to do with traditional media."
Blackfriars distributes the Blackfriars Marketing Index each quarter as
a benchmark for US marketing budgets and spending. Blackfriars has
published a 28-page research report titled "Sizing US Marketing 2006."
Included in this report are 2006 projections for marketing spending overall
and spending projections by type of activity. It also includes analysis of
marketing spending in six vertical industries. It has detailed breakdowns
and rankings of the dollars spent by those vertical industries in twelve
different categories of marketing activity such as advertising (both online
and offline), direct mail and telemarketing, direct email, events, Web site
development, and collateral development. This report is available for $695
directly from Blackfriars and will also be distributed through
MarketResearch.com, ResearchandMarkets.com, SourceMedia.com, and their
affiliates.
About Blackfriars Communications, Inc.
Blackfriars Communications, Inc., headquartered in Maynard, Mass.,
improves how organizations communicate through consulting, executive
training, and research services. With more than 25 years of experience in
technology and marketing, Blackfriars' objective methodologies help
companies distill, communicate, and deliver their value. On the Net:
Blackfriars Communications, Inc. site: http://www.blackfriarsinc.com.
CONTACT:
Carl D. Howe
Blackfriars Communications, Inc.
978-897-7500
chowe@blackfriarsinc.com
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