In the consumer electronics retail category, which includes
brick-and-mortar retailers like Circuit City as well as catalogers
such as Dell, what is the quantity and/or percent of their budget
allocated and what percent of their staff is dedicated for this type
of marketing efforts?  I need deliverable by Monday, 5-03, mid-day
Pacific time.  Thank you.

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Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 03 May 2004 14:41 PDT

Deliverable deadline extended to Wednesday 5-05.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 03 May 2004 15:08 PDT

Hello -

Any limitations on the definition of "direct database?"  Mail, phone,
email, etc.?  Any one or all?

Also, is it acceptable to provide budget information for a few
specific companies as an answer?

jbf777

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Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 04 May 2004 09:27 PDT

No limitations.  If I can get it all, that would be great. Yes, you
may provide budget information.  Thank you.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 04 May 2004 10:08 PDT

Thank you.  I will be contacting these companies manually to find out
what I can.  If I can't get a "percentage of staff" number, will you
settle for just percentage of budget?

Thanks,

jbf777

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Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 04 May 2004 10:31 PDT

I will take whatever data you can collect.  Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 04 May 2004 12:38 PDT

I have contacted several firms, and it doesn't look as though
companies are eager to disclose this information.  Of the three I
actually spoke to, all of them said they specifically don't disclose
the info (the rest were voice mail).  The closest I came was with
RadioShack, who said their budget is "fairly significant," but again
no numbers.  The main issue here is the deadline... if I had some more
time, I might be able to find 2 or 3 companies that would be willing
to disclose the information, but I don't know how possible this is
given
the initial response of the other companies.

I have, however, found an analyst firm that is willing to give me an
average statistic from a survey of a few dozen general
retail/wholesaler type companies on what their budget allocation is
for direct-database type activities.  The rep from the company says
this should be a good indication of retail companies in general, and
that this could possibly be applied to total advertising budgets of
consumer electronics retail companies.

Would you be interested in this number, along with a few total
advertising budgets for a few companies, as an answer to your
question?

jbf

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Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 04 May 2004 15:09 PDT

Will this firm be able to have deliverable by tomorrow?

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 04 May 2004 15:56 PDT

According to the rep I spoke to, yes...

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Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 04 May 2004 16:37 PDT

If you can get deliverable to me tomorrow from the firm and your own
findings, this would be fine.  However, my supervisor is reluctant to
pay the full $200 as the data is not 100% what we were hoping to get. 
At the same time we want to compensate you for your time.  What amount
do you think is fair?

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 05 May 2004 07:34 PDT

Does $100 sound OK?

jbf777

---

Clarification of Question by lcardenas-ga on 05 May 2004 09:06 PDT

Yes, thank you!  Please have deliverable to me ASAP today. Again,
thanks for your efforts.  I know this wasn't an easy topic to
research.

Hello -

Thanks for your question.  If you require any additional
clarification, please ask before rating this answer.

Since my last posting, I discovered some data that's very close to
what you're looking for on the budget side of things:

"For this comprehensive survey report, IDC surveyed over 100 of the
largest and most influential tech vendors, and from this effort has
compiled a new database that represents approximately $400 billion in
total revenue and over $11 billion in marketing spend. The database
and analysis represents a behind-the-scenes look at marketing
organizations across the information technology industry."

The data includes information from the following participating companies:

Network Associates
Accenture
EMC
Novell
Adaptec
FileNet
Oracle
Adobe
Fujitsu
Panasonic
Apple Computer
Gateway
PeopleSoft
Atos Origin
Geac
Perot Systems
Bearing Point
Getronics
Progress Software
Best Software
Hitachi Data Systems
PTC
BMC Software
Hitachi Global Storage
RSA Security
Borland
HP
Sandisk
Business Objects
Hyperion Solutions
SAS Institute
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young
IBM
Seagate
Canon
InfoNet
SGI (Silicon Graphics)
CGI Group Inc.
J.D. Edwards
Siebel
Checkpoint
Keane
Software AG
CIBER Inc.
Kronos
Sony
Cisco
Lawson Software
StorageTek
Cognos
Legato Systems
Stratus Technologies
Computer Associates
Lexmark
Sun Microsystems
Compuware
Liebert
Sybase
Convergys
Lockheed Martin
Symbol Technologies
Corel
Logica CMG
The Source Group
Covansys
Macromedia
UTS Tarcom
CSC
Maxtor
Veritas
DiamondCluster International
Micron PC
Verticalnet
EDS
NetIQ
Western Digital
Ericsson
Network Appliance
Wyse Technologies

Here's a chart from the report, showing that direct marketing
represents 15% of average tech vendor's marketing spend:

http://www.idc.com/getfile.dyn?sectionId=fr2003_10_01_152951_featuredresearch&containerId=fr2003_10_01_152951&elementId=fr2003_10_01_152951_101&attachmentId=46444389&id=50529356

In addition, here is a study on marketing for IT organizations.  It
surveys a few hundred companies and gives specific breakdowns on
spending:

2004 IT Marketing Trends Study Results
http://wp.bitpipe.com/resource/org_973204426_74/Bitpipe04ITMktgTendsStudy_bitpipe.pdf


--

Here are some advertising budgets for 4 different electronics retailers:

RadioShack
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/96289/000009628904000069/k123103.txt
Advertising  expense  increased  $13.4  million in 2003 to $254.4  million  from
$241.0 million in 2002 and increased 0.2 percentage  points to 5.5% of net sales
and operating revenues in 2003, compared to 5.3% in 2002.

Best Buy
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/764478/000104746904014114/a2134459z10-k.htm
Advertising costs, which are included in SG&A, are expensed the first
time the advertisement runs. Gross advertising expenses, before
expense reimbursement from vendor allowances, for fiscal 2004, 2003
and 2002 were $675, $567 and $493, respectively.

Dell
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/826083/000095013404005058/d14085e10vk.htm
Advertising Costs ? Advertising costs are charged to expense as
incurred. Advertising expenses for fiscal 2004, 2003, and 2002, were
$473 million, $426 million, and $361 million, respectively.

Circuit City
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/CC/reports/2003ar.pdf
Advertising.  Circuit City's business relies on considerable amounts of
advertising  to  maintain  high  levels  of  consumer   awareness.   Advertising
expenditures  from  continuing  operations  were 3.5  percent  of net  sales and
operating revenues in fiscal 2003, 3.8 percent in fiscal 2002 and 4.1 percent in
fiscal 2001. Circuit City uses multi-page newspaper advertisements,  network and
cable television advertising,  magazine advertising, direct mail and interactive
media. The multi-page newspaper advertisements provide an extensive presentation
of the range of consumer  electronics  products  sold at Circuit City stores and
generally  feature  products  at  highly  competitive  prices.  Circuit  City is
generally one of the largest  newspaper  advertisers  in markets that it serves.
Television and magazine  advertising  generally features the company's low price
guarantee,  called Price Match Plus, but focuses on differentiating  elements in
the service offer such as the "no-hassle" return policy, freedom from restocking
fees and the Web site's Express Pickup feature.  Circuit City's net sales and
operating  revenues from  continuing  operations for the fourth fiscal  quarter,
which  includes the holiday  season,  were $3.19  billion in fiscal 2003,  $3.36
billion in fiscal 2002 and $3.15  billion in fiscal 2001.  Net sales
were $9,953,530,000 in 2003.



Additional data:

Primary Marketing Spending Research
http://www.doubleclick.com/us/knowledge_central/research/marketing_spending/

This survey data is courtesy of Primedia Business(1), publishers of
Direct Marketing Business Intelligence:

http://68.15.21.151/uploads/researchers/surveyresponses.doc

--

Additional links:

New Study Finds Marketing Communications Budgets Up for 2004;
Important Links Between Marketing Accountability, Perceptions and
Budgets
http://www.marketingtoday.com/marcom/Blackfriar_Index-Apr04.htm

65 percent of companies (surveyed) are spending between 1 and 5
percent of their marketing budgets on email marketing; an additional
22 percent are spending in excess of 5 percent.  Email will
cannibalize 13 percent of direct mail revenues by 2005.
Source: Jupiter Research

http://www.emaillabs.com/resources_statistics.html


Full IDC report found here ($5,000):
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=fr2003_10_01_152951

This was great data...it looks like we have a new research channel! Great work!

Thanks for the kind words and tip!  Please stop by again.

jbf777