UK Business Favours Regional Press For Marketing

The survey shows that over half a million businesses currently use the regional press for their advertising and that it is especially favoured by small and medium-sized businesses, as shown. Television and radio are the least-used of the media for business marketing, used by 3% and 5% of firms respectively.

UK Businesses’ Marketing Methods
	Company size
	Overall	Small	Medium	Large
Local Press	49%	50%	47%	26%
Direct Mail	38%	37%	45%	49%
Email	32%	29%	45%	36%
Sales meetings	30%	24%	50%	67%
Online advertising	26%	23%	34%	43%
Trade exhibitions	22%	17%	38%	64%
Telephone sales	20%	17%	29%	47%
Posters	19%	19%	17%	35%
National Press	8%	6%	12%	35%
Radio	5%	5%	8%	3%
TV	3%	3%	4%	7%
Source: Continental Research, December 2002

Colin Shaddick, director of Continental Research, said: “As one would expect, marketing methods used do vary by size of company. Large companies are more likely to favour personal contact approaches through sales meetings (presentations), trade exhibitions and telephone sales. In addition online advertising is quite popular with the larger companies. They are, however, less likely to use local press probably due to the wider geographic coverage of their business.”

Advertising forecasts UK regional newspapers are forecast by the Advertising Association to show a 1.6% rise in advertising revenue during 2002, rising to 4.4% in 2003. Of this, display is expected to be much stronger than classified spend (see UK Press Advertising Forecasts: Consumer Mags Remain Stable).