Advertisers 
have come a long way in forging stronger ties between their marketing and procurement teams. Yet, there is much more to be done as organizations look for ways to improve their return on marketing investment (ROMI). After all, while important, expense reduction is only part of the ROMI equation and some would argue a secondary consideration when contrasted with marketing’s role in demand generation.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released the results of a recent survey of procurement professionals fielded earlier this year. Not surprisingly, survey participants indicated that “cost reduction” and “cost avoidance” were the top two metrics by which their efforts were judged within their respective organizations. No problem. These are important financial goals for any enterprise.
However, the key to evolving the collaboration between marketing and procurement is to evolve their focus to include various means of boosting supplier performance. The potential strategic value related to improvements in; agency relationship management processes, resource allocation decision making, supplier innovation and client/ agency engagement can have a meaningful impact on the bottom line. On this topic, the aforementioned ANA survey would suggest that marketing and procurement have made significant progress, at least philosophically.
So what are the impediments to strategic sourcing playing a more meaningful role in marketing procurement and supplier relationship management? Many in the marketing and advertising industry would suggest that “experience” is the principal challenge facing procurement professionals when it comes to the marketing services arena. To be fair, this is not a procurement issue, this is an organizational issue. Recruiting sourcing talent with marketing experience, educating and training procurement professionals on the nuances of professional services sourcing and creating a culture which embraces accountability and transparency across the organization are key issues to be addressed.
In our opinion, marketing has a significant opportunity to shape the organization’s efforts in building the proficiency of the procurement team. Work begins with, but clearly is not limited to, assisting HR to identify sourcing professionals with marketing experience, assisting in the crafting of job descriptions, educating and informing their procurement peers on differences between marketing services and other direct or indirect procurement categories, and working diligently to articulate their supplier optimization initiatives as the basis for driving goal alignment between marketing and strategic sourcing.
Unfortunately, in some organizations, rather than assist in developing procurement’s skill set and resource offering, marketers take advantage of the procurement team’s lack of category experience to stave off or minimize their involvement within the marketing services realm. Given the significant level of marketing investment advertisers are making this is clearly not a desirable outcome; either as it relates to ROMI or relates to mitigating financial and legal risks inherent across the marketing services supplier network.
Unlike George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” which were once “forbidden” by the broadcast industry; accountability, audit, collaboration, cost containment, expense reduction, risk management and transparency are not taboo. Rather, these activities should be considered necessary ingredients in any strategic supplier management initiative. It remains a mystery as to why this perspective has been slower to take seed in the U.S. advertising marketplace than it has in the U.K. and Western Europe, but it is an issue that will need to be addressed for any real progress to occur.
Interested in learning more about constructive marketing procurement programs? Contact Cliff Campeau, Principal at Advertising Audit & Risk Management at ccampeau@aarmusa.com for a complimentary consultation.