I am looking for a benchmark of marketing dollars as a % of sales
relative to companies of similar size to mine.  We are a
business-to-business research company with $20-$30 Million in annual
sales.  I have seen some "guidance" in articles that b-2-b companies
spend roughly 5-10% of sales on their marketing efforts and that b-2-c
companies (Walmart was one reference in a Google search) spend .5 to
5% of sales on marketing.  An acceptable answer would be one that
references publicly released survey data on b-to-b companies at least
and preferably by size of company within b-to-b or for the
professional services, consulting or research industry.  I do not
expect that detail to be available so simply on b-to-b companies would
be fine.  The key attributes are the figure (% of total annual sales
spent on marketing efforts), that it is b-to-b at least and that is a
source I can reference.  Since there are different definitions of
"marketing activities", it would be beneficial but not required if
that detail is specified.  Thanks!

Are you seriously looking for an answer to this for $5.00?

This is my first time using Google Answers.  Since I already found
articles referencing "the number" I am looking for (average of 5-10%
of sales dollars at b-to-b companies is spent on marketing) I am only
looking for a more solid source for this answer.  If it is not
available in a quick search by an experienced researcher, it is not
worth the time or effort simply for validation.  Additionally, I am a
big believer in "tipping."

I do quarterly surveys of senior executives regarding marketing
budgets, attitudes, and spending. It turns out we have asked this
question in three of our surveys last year, so we have data from about
300 executives. But before I provide the answer, I want to provide the
caveats about how to interpret the answer.

This is a broad-based survey, and our only filter on the respondents
is whether they are senior executives (VP, C-level, owner, president,
etc.). Our claim is that our sample is roughly representative of the
US Census of Business, with large businesses typically being
*over-represented* by about 10-20% and small businesses being
*under-represented* by the same amount. You can look at the US Census
data at http://www.census.gov/epcd/susb/2001/us/US--.HTM. In the
census, small business is 99% of business, so anything where you get a
sizable number of large companies is actually over-representing large
business.

When we average the sample for B2B companies, we find they spend 8.4%
of revenue on marketing.

Compare this against the other three types of answers: companies with 
$100 million in revenue or more averaged 13.8%, companies that have
less than $100 million in revenue averaged 8.7%, and all companies
surveyed averaged 9%. The bottom line: B2B companies spend slightly
less on marketing in general than the average company.

Oh, another comparison: B2C companies spend 9% of revenue on average,
just a tad more than B2B companies.

We do have breakdowns of what they spend those budgets on as well, but
that is content that we sell as part of our syndicated research. You
may contact me if you want more information on that. We publish a
public index of marketing spending as well called the Blackfriars
Marketing Index. You may want to google that for a gauge of how
marketing spending has changed over the past year or so.

I hope this is helpful to you.