Success with your Business

How much should I spend on marketing?

This is a common question that marketing consultants gets asked on a regular basis.

The simple answer is that there is no hard a fast rule – it depends on the competitive environment, the stage of business development, the product or service category and the balance of advertising designed to promote the brand vs advertising designed to generate a specific response.

As a result of these factors, marketing budgets are best set based on careful analysis of a number of factors as part of a Marketing Strategy not via the often used % of sales method.

If you are looking to develop a deeper understanding of your marketing budget then there are two good places to start.

Are you running your business into the ground? Thats what you are doing if you aren’t innovating. It’s “innovate or die” you know. Products have a life cycle. Eventually they die. You have to continually give birth to new products in order to keep your company young, vital and profitable.

Gillette’s Innovation Strategy

Let’s examine the fruits of the innovation strategy for Gillette razor blades. Following is a list of the innovation made by Gillette over the years:

* Safety razor invented in 1895
* Razor marketed specifically to women 1916
* Razor dispenser 1946
* Stainless Steel blades 1963
* Double-blade razor 1971
* Disposable double-blade razor 1976
* Razor with a pivot point 1977
* Razor with a lubricating strip 1985
* Razor with spring-loaded blades 1990
* Razor with microfins 1995
* Razor with three blades 1998
* Manual Razor with battery power 2004
* Razor with five blades 2007
* Razor with rear trim blade 2007