Let the good times roll

IT vendors' global marketing budgets will increase by an average of seven per cent in 2006, the greatest year-on-year increase in five years, market watchers predicted today.

According to IDC, the average marketing budget increase for a tech vendor now outpaces the average revenue increase, indicating that every dollar of vendor revenue is becoming more expensive to garner.

"Marketing leaders and their C-level counterparts need to accept the new realities and complexities of the tech marketing function," said Rich Vancil, vice president of the CMO Advisory Practice at IDC.

"And they need to recognise that marketing is going to get more complex, and therefore more costly, over the next few years.

"Tech marketing is, in general, an under-funded area. The irony is that IDC's research shows that the companies achieving the best gains in revenues and profits are those investing in marketing at a higher than average pace."