Executive Summary
As a former CMO, I know first-hand the tension that can sometimes exist between marketing and procurement. But is it really as simple as bean-counters vs. spendthrifts? Not if you take a good, honest look.
Truth is major global enterprises benefit from excellence in both disciplines. But a lack of knowledge and understanding can yield confusion, discomfort and hesitancy on everyone's part.
CMOs know that marketing programs are not bought by the pound. They fear decisions solely made on a cost basis, treating all goods and services as commodities, without the crucial understanding of what makes one deliverable more valuable than another.
Procurement, on the other hand, may view marketing as resistant to cost accountability or any attempt to applying meaningful financial metrics to their promotional activities.
This mutual suspicion is highly ironic.
Excellent marketing delivers competitive advantage, price premiums and revenue growth that create opportunities for investment in shared corporate competencies such as procurement.
Procurement by helping marketing achieve more value on marketing spend, contributes to what in effect is a larger marketing budget, which is a good way to think about marketing spend optimized by your procurement team.
Clearly, a little education, in both directions here will go a long way.