ANA/4A’s Procurement Survey Final Report | “Procurement: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

The 4A’s partnered with the ANA on an important survey in order to understand the dynamics associated with procurement’s involvement in client marketing initiatives, agency services, agency selection and agency compensation.

The research survey report “Procurement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” is now available, at no cost, to 4A’s members.

The ANA report, “Procurement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” contains important information about client marketing procurement. This survey looks at procurement effectiveness and influence from the perspective of three stakeholder groups: marketing procurement/sourcing; client marketing and agency management. Survey findings include:

•  Background on procurement (reporting structures, levels of experience, etc.)
•  Perspectives on procurement’s role in client marketing
•  Perceptions of procurement’s value framework
•  Agency-procurement interaction dynamics
•  Client marketing perspectives of procurement
•  Assessment of sourcing goals and objectives
•  A 360 view of procurement motivations and tactics.

“Procurement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” also includes industry thought leader best practice recommendations and suggestions for improving relationships among agencies, client marketing and client procurement. Thought leader observations include:

• Kim Kraus (Procter & Gamble)…successful arrangements start at the client with alignment of goals between marketing and procurement.
• Jim Akers (Pfizer, Inc.)…advanced client organizations have moved beyond cost savings and toward top-line growth.
• Nancy Hill (4A’s)…procurement has an opportunity to improve effectiveness and collaboration by being more transparent in detailing their objectives, benchmarks and metrics to both key agency partners and their internal marketing colleagues.
• Jim Zambito (Johnson & Johnson)… procurement needs to learn marketing and negotiate with valid benchmarks and fair balance.
• Neal Grossman (TBWA\Chiat\Day)… procurement’s performance measures should be aligned with the client’s marketing objectives.

“Procurement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” contains need-to-know information. 4A’s recommends that agency management, client service personnel, business development leaders and financial managers carefully review this report and assess the implications for their agency.

This survey reveals significant gaps between agencies and client procurement. There is an opportunity for agencies to reach out to procurement to foster more strategic and positive working relations. It also seems apparent that agencies must engage client marketing in the dialogue.

Based on the findings from the “Procurement: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” survey, the 4A’s and ANA plan to evolve training and guidance initiatives that can help foster more collaborative relations between client marketing, agencies and client procurement.