Despite the projected gains, the average marketing budget increase is still less than half the surveyed companies' projected revenue increase of 4.6%.
"IDC consistently observes that marketing budgets track closely to revenue momentum. As such, IDC has seen that as 3rd Platform companies gain revenue, the marketing budgets for those vendors have also increased," said Sam Melnick, Research Analyst, IDC CMO Advisory Service. "However, in the majority of legacy, 2nd Platform companies, marketing budgets have remained stagnant. 2nd Platform vendors must identify their high growth areas and aggressively invest budget to support them or risk being left behind."
IDC finds that senior tech marketers, in general, continue to demonstrate a greater sense of optimism about their budgets than in earlier years. In 2013, IDC's Tech Marketing Benchmark study showed that more companies increased marketing budget than lowered or maintained budgets. The 2014 Barometer study indicates that this trend will continue.
IDC's 2014 Tech Marketing Barometer Study (Document #248110) was recently completed by IDC's CMO Advisory Service and seeks to capture the pulse of marketing executives in the technology sector and gauge the direction of marketing resource expenditures and priorities during the next six to nine months.