ABSTRACT
All communication plans begin and end with an accounting of the communication budget. There is no right or wrong way to develop the communication budget. Regardless of the method of developing the communication budget, it will undergo scrutiny from senior management. Companies develop their communication budgets in a variety of ways. No company has unlimited resources, so the CEO must ultimately decide what percentage of his or her company's sales will be devoted to marketing and to communications. Once an overall communication budget has been determined, there are four broad categories that the marketing director or advertising manager reviews. The challenge of the communication planner is to allocate the dollars to the appropriate channels. The communication budget may include agency compensation and contingency or it may exclude those items. The overall budget is reviewed by the CEO and the specific allocation of resources is then reviewed by the marketing or advertising manager.
