New Blackfriars Marketing Index today

Today was publishing day, which is always a bit busy, what with Web site updates, press releases, and the like. If you haven't looked at www.blackfriarsinc.com today, we've set the Q1 2005 Blackfriars Marketing Index to 128. That number comes from our January survey of senior business executives about marketing budgets, attitudes, and spending. It indicates that companies plan to spend about 128% of what they spent in an average quarter in 2003 on marketing. The number is actually a bit stronger than it appears, since 2004 marketing spending actually came in under budget (companies spent only 93% of their 2004 marketing budgets on average). Bottom line: marketing looks strong for both this quarter and the year.

One other bit of data from the survey: marketing attitudes are now the most positive we've measured. But at the same time, there is growing concern about the tyranny of too much advertising and media clutter. That effect even showed up in some of the quotes from respondents, which is the first time we've really seen that. I don't expect the tyranny of too much phenomenon to crest until three to five years from now, but there is no question that it is becoming a trend.

Quick pitch: If you want to read all the great data we collected and analyzed, buy our report at the Blackfriars eStore at its new, more affordable price of $495.