Marketing Budget

Target has eliminated 85 positions as part of a reorganization of its marketing department. The company said in a statement that it "routinely evaluates all areas" to ensure its organizational structure is efficient and that staffing levels meet its changing needs. The position eliminations were not specific to employment levels or skill sets, according to a company spokesperson.

Using e-mail to cross-promote multiple brands can be tricky, but when done right, it can noticeably increase ROI. The idea behind any co-branded effort should be for both brands to partner in a clever way that makes the joint experience better than either brand on its own.

Direct marketing's share of total US advertising spending will reach 54.3% for 2009, increasing by 1.6% over last year's total, according to statistics released by the Direct Marketing Association for its DMA09 conference. Direct marketing ad spend will increase 2.7% next year, reaching $153.3 billion in total, according to the group's predictions.

Seventy-one percent of global CMOs reported 2009 marketing budgets are lower than budgets they had in 2008, and more than half (51%) have reported cuts of 20% or more, according to Forrester Research in its "Marketing Budgets Suffer Significant Cuts" report released July 7.