Survey says marketing spend likely to increase

A recent survey by the Direct Marketing Association revealed that spending on both physical and digital marketing materials would remain largely the same during the third quarter of 2011.

The study by the DMA revealed that 90 percent of those asked said the dollars spent on outreach efforts would remain the same as last year, with 43.4 percent saying that spending on the efforts would likely increase during the fourth quarter of 2011. The DMA worked with New York-based Winterberry Group, a consulting firm, to get the opinions of some 300 of its members.

"As much as we want to put the economic problems of the past couple of years behind us, we’re not yet in a strong recovery," Yory Wurmser, DMA’s director of marketing and media insights said. "With troubles in Europe getting deeper by the week, we expect to see marketers face continued obstacles to growth in the coming months.”

The DMA made other news recently when it came out in support of a bill in the U.S. Senate to give funding to the United States Postal Service. The legislation would give the agency $7 billion to combat its well-publicized financial woes.