Advertis Ng Effec and Budge Ing Prac

T HE industrial sector has long been regarded as the stepchild of marketing in terms of the amount of research effort devoted to its problems. There are, however, indications that the situation may be changing. Research on industriallorganizational buying behavior is growing, and a considerable body of empirical knowledge about processes surrounding the innovation and diffusion of industrial technologies and products has been deve1oping.I This article is concerned with a different set of issues: those surrounding the determination of expenditure levels for industrial advertising. The purpose here is two-fold: ( 1 ) to review the available research relating to the effects of industrial advertising, and (2) to examine practices currently used in budgeting industrial advertising in light of what is known about advertising response and costs in this field. Estimates of total industrial advertising volume are not readily available because of the lack of relevant aggregate data and the vagaries of defining what constitutes "industrial advertising." However, N. W. Ayer estimated that industrial advertising totaled $925 million i n 197312 and Marsteller, chairman of one of the major advertising agencies in the industrial marketing field,