By Mike Bradbury & Neal Kissel
Journal of Investment Strategy, September/October '06
(excerpt)

Our experience based on working with many Global 500 multinationals is that reasonably sophisticated marketers are not likely to grossly over- or under-spend on marketing as a whole. Moreover, as long as spending is close to the optimum level, little extra value can be created from optimizing the level of marketing investment. By contrast, decisions on where marketing investment goes can have quite a significant impact on value creation. So, focusing on the allocation question should be the highest priority.