[NOTABUG]Possible bug - Marketing budgets

[Arakash]

Like my other post, im really not sure if this is a bug or WAD, feel free to delete/move the post if it isnt a bug.

When you set your marketing budget, either on the world map or on the mega menu and you use your mouse to move the slider, there seems to be some sort of predetermined limit to your marketing budgets.
In my current game for example in London the limit is ~$800 in newspapers per individual model/broad base.

Ive done most of my marketing by typing into the mega menu a desired figure or through the "modify marketing budget" button.
So for example in the same London i mentioned, im spending $12800 per individual model/broad base in newspapers.
Here is a screenshot to illustrate

So is that a bug? or does the game allow you to spend as much as you want on marketing.

[Eric.B]

If you spend more than the slider allows you're just throwing money away... The public can only take so much marketing, before it's pointless to market it anymore. Imagine watching TV and seeing the same commercial over and over again during the commercial breaks...


I'll leave this thread open as I should put checks and limits when using the quick mod buttons and the modify all buttons etc.

This sadly won't make 1.11, It might make 1.12

[Arakash]

If you spend more than the slider allows you're just throwing money away... The public can only take so much marketing, before it's pointless to market it anymore. Imagine watching TV and seeing the same commercial over and over again during the commercial breaks...


I'll leave this thread open as I should put checks and limits when using the quick mod buttons and the modify all buttons etc.

This sadly won't make 1.11, It might make 1.12

Hm, that's interesting to hear.

I started taking the current top advertisers in my country (Australia) then adjusting their budgets for inflation just to get a comparison.
The cheap internet inflation calculator im using suggests that its about 100x less, so around 0.5-2mil per year in 1900 dollars.
By comparison that figure is around 20mil per year in 1908 in the game that screenshot shows.

I think ive gone far far over the top

The reason i though it was working was:
I was giving each section equal money then using the "Increase marketing budgets" button (or whatever its name is) in the mega menu.
I noticed an increase in sales after each time, but i think the only ones which were actually increasing and not maxed were sports and miscellaneous.
Lesson learned i suppose.

[Eric.B]

If I read this correctly, real adverts in Australia are about 100x less than what you are spending in game? Interesting to note.

[Arakash]

If I read this correctly, real adverts in Australia are about 100x less than what you are spending in game? Interesting to note.

Ive put a summary at the end of this post to clarify, i hope it makes things more clear.
Sorry if im not making a lot of sense, I'm not a great communicator, so no guarantee i can say anything clearly at any moment

This is all based off very rough data and calculations.
I was trying to compare modern (2011) real world yearly advertising budgets to the fictional ones in my 1900-1910 game.
Of course the value of money has changed a lot since 1900, so it has to be adjusted for inflation(which is what the x100 was).

Once you do the adjustment for inflation, the largest yearly advertising budgets in modern Australia are 0.5-2mil per year. (very rough calculation)
But my advertising budget, mainly for England around 1910ish, was 20mil per year.

So my marketing budget was 10 to 40 times higher than the yearly advertising budget of the largest modern advertiser in Australia.
Also interesting to note was that my yearly budget is 40 times higher than the yearly advertising budget of largest modern Vehicle/Car advertiser in Australia.
This is interesting as it suggests im wasting too much money on advertising ingame. Even if i correct my mistake about overspending on things like newspapers for no purpose, 20mil looks really excessive.

So in summary:
The 100x is just a VERY rough estimation of inflation over 100-110 years, likely wrong.
The 20mil per year marketing is closer to 10 to 40 times higher than the yearly budgets of the largest modern advertisers in Australia. (inflation adjusted)

Hope that clears things up a bit.

[Eric.B]

Yes it does, thank you.

I won't tell you where the sweet spot is, (partly because there is some randomness to it) but yea, you shouldn't have to max out marketing unless you want to improve image.