Analyst projects increased ad spending by consumer-goods makers

NEW YORK Consumer-goods makers are looking to increase their brand awareness with more ad spending, a new report suggested.

Major consumer-products makers are expected to spend an average 9.7% of their annual sales on advertising this year, up from 8.6% in 2009, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj said in a recent research report. Why? Dibadj explained that boosting a brand's share of advertising beyond its market share will raise that market share. Among major household products, market share stayed the same or rose 64% of the time over the past 16 quarters when a company's advertising reach exceeded its market share by 50% or more.

In the four weeks ended March 20, overall U.S. sales of household and personal products -- excluding Walmart and club stores -- increased 0.2% from a year earlier, compared with a 5.4% gain in private-label sales, according to a Sanford C. Bernstein analysis of Nielsen data.

Major contenders include Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palomolive and Kimberly-Clark.