Marketing Procurement

What Is Marketing Procurement?

Marketing Procurement is the buying of goods and services that support an organisation’s Marketing investment. It covers the Marketing 4 P’s – Product; Price; Place (Distribution) and Promotion. It is a wide-ranging category covering spend areas such as advertising through to the negotiation of sponsorship contracts.

How Does Marketing Procurement Differ from Other Areas of Procurement?

Stakeholder management and in-depth knowledge of the category is key for marketing procurement. Its marketplace is complex and constantly having to adapt to digital requirements. The procurement activity is based upon procuring creative solutions that are people based with varied skill sets. The pace of change is constant covering the way that suppliers are remunerated; to which supply models are the best; in housing vs outsourcing to driving added value for the stakeholders.

What Are the Benefits to Collaborative Relationships with Marketing and Agencies?

In recent times we have seen the true benefit of the agencies stepping up to work with their Marketing stakeholders to help them through an unprecedented time. . Working together marketing activities have been made and changed to reflect the current situations in each country that they work together in. The right messages and tone of the marketing activity are key for brands and having a partnership and collaborative relationship delivers that.

How to maximise marketing value through procurement?

The money spent on marketing activities is often of a high profile e.g. a TV ad or a Sponsorship, so it is important that marketing procurement teams work with their marketing stakeholders to drive as much value from this spend. This could be the placement of more ad’s for the same budget; this could be efficiencies in the ways of working to deliver the marketing work quicker or it could be having technology in place to drive more targeted advertising online. Procurement plays a role in supporting marketing to maximise the value that they are spending in their marketing activities.

What Areas of Spend and Types of Goods or Services Will I Be Expected to Procure?

Marketing is probably the most complicated and wide ranging of the procurement categories. It covers the following areas of spend:

1. Advertising
2. Media
3. CRM
4. Data
5. Market Research
6. Digital
7. Print
8. Influencers
9. Design
10. Internal Comms
11. Brand ambassadors
12. Mobile
13. Native advertising
14. New media
15. Out-of-home
16. Point of sale
17. Product demonstration
18. Promotional merchandise
19. Visual merchandising
20. Word-of-mouth

Are There Additional Soft Skills or Capabilities I Will Need to Work in Marketing Procurement?

1. Softer skillset
2. Thickskinned
3. High level of Stakeholder Management
4. Creative
5. Quick thinking
6. Proactive
7. Appreciates the win: win set up
8. Takes time to understand the process & ways of working
9. Multitasker due to category width
10. Can add standard procurement tools to match Marketing
11. Senior Management dialogue
12. Keeps up to date on the market

Listen to the latest recordings and find out more about the challenges and rewards of working in a marketing procurement role and how to work collaboratively with agencies:

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