Posted by randfish

Steven Silvers writes:

Research firm Blackfriars Communications estimates that U.S. business will spend around $615 billion on marketing this year...

...Wow. Given the inherent hit-and-miss nature of marketing communications it’s staggering to think about how much money American companies spend to create absolutely nothing in return. Every one percent of the “marketing industry” that is ineffective represents more than six billion dollars poured down the drain.

Even if you were to assume that two-thirds of all marketing was successful – and that’s very generous – then you’re talking about $203 billion being wasted on useless overhead and clutter this year alone.

I'm a bit surprised at his take on the subject. Marketing dollars to my mind can be ineffectively spent just like research dollars (an error some think Google has committed) or human resources dollars or overhead costs (I love these offices too but are they all worth the money?). I think what Steve's getting at is that marketing is a "risk-based" venture though his rant merely tells us that he's outraged and not why.

The question I'd posit back would be - "From a macroeconomic standpoint what makes you believe that marketing spend is against the best interests of a small medium or large company?"

Don't get me wrong at first I was a considerably aggravated by his indignation but I do believe there's some positive insight to be gleaned from thinking a bit deeper about the subject.

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