Survey Finds A/E Firms Reducing and Reallocating Marketing Dollars
Median marketing costs, as a percentage of net revenues for A/E firms, continued their slide from a recent peak of nearly 6% in 1997 to 4.1% in 2002. "Counter to last year's analysis, however," said Bill Fanning, director of research at
PSMJ Resources, Inc., "firms report slightly higher marketing costs as a percentage of gross revenues. This is due to overall marketing expenditures increasing at a greater rate than gross revenue, resulting in a small increase in these percentages."
Median marketing spending for promotional activities dropped with respect to last year to levels in the 6% to 11% range, while marketing spending for presentations increased into the 8% to 18% range. This indicates that the design industry decided to allocate more of its available funds to marketing activities that focus on direct client contact rather than to general firm promotion and advertising.