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photo: HOLLY SRAEEL
The drastic cutbacks in advertising across all industries, including financial services, will likely end up costing companies more than it saves. What they save in marketing dollars could very well be lost in customers. Throughout 2001 and so far this year, it's a huge gamble that too many companies are willing to make.
The decline in advertising in 2001 has been referred to as a "freefall" by CMR, a company that tracks expenditures across television, print, radio, outdoor and on-line mediums. Advertising spending for all media fell 7.8 percent for the first three quarters of 2001, compared to the same period in 2000. CMR estimates that total ad spending for the first three quarters of last year was slightly more than $68.8 billion, compared to $74.7 billion for the prior year's first nine months.
While the terrorist attacks...