Percentage-of-Sales Method

The percentage-of-salesBudgeting method that divides the ratio of the firm’s past annual promotional budget by past sales to arrive at the percentage of sales; this is applied to expected sales in the coming year to arrive at the ad budget for that year. method is the ratio of the firm’s past annual promotional budget divided by past sales to arrive at the percentage of sales. That percentage of sales is then applied to the expected sales in the coming year to arrive at the budget for that year. For example, if the company spent $20 million on advertising last year and had $100 million in sales, the percentage of sales would be 20 percent. If the company expects to achieve $120 million in sales the following year, then 20 percent of $120 million is $24 million, which would be the budget for advertising that year.

Figure 7.2 Percentage-of-Sales Method

Wall Street analysts sometimes look at changes in the ad-to-sales ratioThe relationship between a company’s promotional budget and its sales; this ratio is important to business analysts in assessing a company’s health. as a sign of the health of a company. For example, Procter & Gamble’s ad-to-sales-ratio slipped from 10.7 percent in 2004 to 9.9 percent in 2006. Those declines came as P&G faced growing margin pressure from rising commodity costs. Some analysts see strong ad spending as an investment in growth or a sign that a company is having no trouble meeting its earnings targets, so they want to see an ad-to-sales ratio that is consistent or increasing.Jack Neff, “P&G Rewrites its Definition of ‘Ad Spend,’” Advertising Age, September 3, 2007, 3.

Industry Averages Method

Some companies use industry averagesA technique for evaluating ad-to-sales ratios based on the ratios seen in a group of companies in a given industry. (published by trade associations) as a guide to set their promotional budget. Ad-to-sales ratios vary widely depending on the industry. For example, health services companies had one of the highest ad-to-sales ratios for 2006, at 18.7 percent. Other industries with high ad-to-sales ratios are transportation services (14.2 percent), motion pictures and videotape productions (13.7 percent), food (11.9 percent), newspapers (11.1 percent), and broadcast television stations (10.7 percent). In contrast, computer and office equipment had an ad-to-sales ratio of 1.2 percent, while computers and software wholesale had only a 0.2 percent ad-to-sales ratio.Kate Maddox, “Ad Spending Up in ’05, ’06,” B to B, August 8, 2005, 17.

Sometimes a dramatic increase in ad spending by one competitor in an industry spurs others to follow suit. For example, in 2007 German insurance giant Allianz more than quadrupled its annual global advertising budget to 225 million euros after competitor Zurich Financial Services launched a large-scale global awareness campaign.“Allianz Plans €225m Global Branding Blitz,” Marketing Week, May 3, 2007, http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6503373/Allianz-plans-225m-global-branding.html (accessed February 1, 2009). Similarly, the auto insurance industry saw overall ad spending jump more than 32 percent in just two years when GEICO increased its ad spending 75 percent in 2004; this spurred competitors to increase their ad budgets as well. Progressive Insurance spent $265 million in 2006, up from $201 million in 2004, and State Farm likewise plans to increase spending, which topped $270 million in measured media in 2006.Mya Frazier, “Geico’s $500M Outlay Pays Off,” Advertising Age, July 9, 2007, 8.

Spending on certain segments of the promotional budget, such as on coupons, is very much driven by competitor spending levels. Consumer packaged goods companies like P&G and Unilever claim not to like couponing schemes as a promotional activity. Indeed, P&G looked into eliminating coupons in 1997 due to declining newspaper circulation and usage. But companies are tied to using coupon promotions. If one company alone decides to forgo couponing, they face losing cost-conscious consumers to the competition. If companies try to work together to scale back on couponing, they might be accused of violating antitrust regulations. As a result, spending on the media side of couponing was up 26 percent in 2006, reaching $1.8 billion, even though consumer use of coupons was down 13 percent during the same time period.Jack Neff, “Package-Goods Players Just Can’t Quit Coupons,” Advertising Age, May 14, 2007, 8.

Pros and Cons of Top-Down Methods

The advantages of top-down approaches are their speed and straightforwardness. The disadvantage is that the methods look to the past as a guide, rather than to future goals. Just because a company spent $40 million on advertising the previous year doesn’t mean that figure is right for next year. Also, budgets tied to sales figures mean that a company’s promotional budget will decrease if sales decrease—but in fact increasing the promotional budget may be precisely what is needed in order to remedy declining sales.

Objective-Task Method

The objective-task methodThe most common technique of bottom-up budgeting, in which a company sets the objective or task they want the promotion to achieve, then estimates the budget needed to achieve it; top management reviews and approves the budget recommendation. is the most common technique of bottom-up budgeting. Companies that use this method first set the objective or task they want the promotion to achieve. Next, they estimate the budget they will need to accomplish that objective or task. Finally, top management reviews and approves the budget recommendation.

For example, champagne maker Moët & Chandon set its objective “to grow the whole market” in the United States.Jeremy Mullman, “Moët, Rivals Pour More Ad Bucks into Bubbly: Champagne Makers Try to Create Year-Round Demand,” Advertising Age, September 3, 2007, 4. That is, Moët will use advertising to increase consumption of champagne throughout the year, not just over the holidays. Moët based its objective on research that compared champagne consumption in the United States to that in other countries. “The average U.S consumer drinks half a glass of champagne a year, the average British consumer drinks half a bottle and the average French consumer drinks three bottles. There’s clearly room for growth,” said Stuart Foster, director of business development at Moët-Hennessy USA.Jeremy Mullman, “Moët, Rivals Pour More Ad Bucks into Bubbly: Champagne Makers Try to Create Year-Round Demand,” Advertising Age, September 3, 2007, 4. Moët more than tripled its U.S. ad spending in 2006 to $9.5 million from $2.8 million. Reflecting the objective, the company ran its advertising in the summer rather than just around the holidays.

Similarly, Danone Waters is increasing its ad spending in the United Kingdom in 2008 in an effort to increase bottled water consumption among British consumers. Danone Waters is increasing its spending by 15 percent, compared to Moët’s tripling of ad expenditures, which shows that there is no hard-and-fast rule about how much budget is needed to reach a given objective.Jeremy Mullman, “Moët, Rivals Pour More Ad Bucks into Bubbly: Champagne Makers Try to Create Year-Round Demand,” Advertising Age, September 3, 2007, 4; “Danone Waters Plans to Increase Spend by 15%,” Marketing, July 25, 2007, 4.

Other objectives advertisers can set include acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, or building the brand. The objective to acquire new customers often requires a bigger budget than the advertising the firm needs to retain existing customers.

Stage-Based Spending

Some companies use the product life cycle methodStage-based budgeting technique that allocates more money during the introduction stage of a new product than in later stages when the product is established., in which they allocate more money during the introduction stage of a new product than in later stages when the product is established. For example, Procter & Gamble allocated $15 million to advertising Dawn Simple Pleasures, a new liquid detergent product that comes with a separate air freshener attached to the base of the bottle. It allocated less money ($10–12 million) for Dawn Direct Foam, a product it launched two years prior.Vanessa L. Facenda, “Procter Dishes out 3-Tiered Dawn Attack,” Brandweek, September 24, 2007, 4. The need to spend heavily to promote new products is especially strong for pharmaceutical companies when they introduce new drugs. Pharmaceutical companies need to get physicians to talk about their drugs and prescribe them.

In contrast, companies such as baby food manufacturers need to invest in strong promotion on a continual basis, because they get a new set of customers every year. “We provide strong consumer promotion support to drive trial, particularly in our baby segments, where we have a new group of consumers entering the market each year,” said Randy Sloan, executive vice president and general manager at Del Pharmaceuticals, which is the number one advertiser in teething pain relief, children’s toothpaste, and adult oral pain products.Quoted in “A Targeted Approach Creates a Powerhouse,” Chain Drug Review, June 4, 2007, 34.