Budget Allocation
Perhaps a sign of a stabilizing economy, marketing budgets are up for the first time in three years (Figure 11). Overall, the average marketing budget increased from $12.7 million to $16.9 million over last year. There were also increases across the board: Budgets between $41 and $100 million rose 3%, between $21 and $40 million rose 5%, and between $11 and $20 million rose 4%. These slight increases may also be responsible for the 56% of marketers who feel that their budget is adequate to competitively market their brand—only 40% were willing to say that last year.
Somewhat surprisingly, budgets are being geared more toward direct marketing (Figure 12). Despite the industry’s overall decrease in DTC spending, our respondents are actually devoting more money to these campaigns (a 5% increase over last year). Less surprising, however, is the increase in spending in direct to HCP/eDetailing, which rose 6% and has become a more popular channel over the last couple of years. Most of the other categories remained steady with the exception of non-personal promotion (NPP) which dropped 7%.
In the area of NPP spending, marketers are less likely to invest in eDetailing or eMarketing as compared with 2011 (Figure 13). The Internet, however, continues to receive most of the money set aside for NPP, while social media and point-of-care both saw 3% boosts. And after a steady decline in dollars spent on dinner meetings, teleconferences, and webinars, the spending in these areas actually increased 11%.
