Marketing budgets keep rising

Northwestern Financial Review, Oct 1-Oct 14, 2004

Banks are spending more on marketing, according to the American Bankers Association's marketing survey. In 2003, promotional spending reached $9 billion, a 4.6 percent increase from the $8.6 billion banks spent in 2002. Budgets for 2004 are about 5 percent over 2003 budgets. On average, 66.5 percent of marketing expenditures promoted services to court retail customers, while another 23.2 percent was allocated to the small business market.

Commercial lending commanded the remainder of the expenditure pie with 7.4 percent dedicated to mid-market businesses and 1.3 percent for large corporations.