This IDC Presentation discusses the October 2007 Inquiry of the Month. IDC's CMO Advisory Service provides clients with a snapshot of some of the data available to them via inquiry through Inquiry of the Month presentations. This month, IDC analyzed tech vendors' investment in marketing across the regions.

IDC leveraged the 2007 Tech Marketing Benchmarks Database to evaluate the following:

• Distribution of total company revenue by sector
• Marketing budget ratio (total marketing spend as a percentage of revenue) by sector
• Distribution of marketing investment into corporate versus the regions
• Marketing budget ratio by region

The research shows that tech vendors invest a greater percentage of revenue into marketing for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific including Japan (APAC) versus North America (NAR) (about 10–40% greater). This increased investment is the result of several factors, including multiple cultures and languages, customer behaviors, multiple regional divisions, the use of channels to defray sales costs and increase penetration, and others.

IDC's CMO Advisory Service encourages clients to submit recommendations for Inquiries of the Month that they would like to see in the future.