A positive story to end the year on

Research published this week by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has found that experienced marketing buyers concentrate on building third-party relationships and educating the buying team about the category. The study found that it is contrary to advertising agencies’ criticism that procurement teams are solely focusing on lower fees and reduced media costs.

Here is a bit more detail on it from the SM website - supply management.

A good and spot on bit of research to end the year on as this is exactly what the more experienced procurement marketing professionals have been practicing for many years.

Have a good Christmas to those of you that read this and here's to a positive and productive 2011 in this wonderful world of marketing procurement that we work in.

The headline says it all !

Article from Supply Management is very interesting, but not sure about the last fact about Women - I think that there are more us !

The rising profile of procurement has seen the number of UK purchasing managers more than double in a decade. 



According to the Office of National Statistics’ (ONS) Labour Force Survey
 the number of people identified as “purchasing managers” has increased every year, from 24,000 in 2001 to 53,000 this year, an increase of 121 per cent.

In 2008, 39,000 purchasing managers were recorded. This figure increased by just 2,000 in 2009. This year, however, the number jumped by a further 12,000.

Between 2001 and 2003, the number of female purchasing managers in the UK was too small to record. Current figures show that 19,000 of the 53,000 purchasing managers are women.

Purchasing's eqivalent of The Apprentice

Here it is -  a very very detailed run through of the Battle of the Buyers task that we undertook on the hottest day of the year (well so it seemed).  You can also bid for the items that we 'negotiated' for the task.  Hope you enjoy it and congratulations again to the winning team.  Here is the link to the article - Battle of the Buyer.

The B of the B's

Had great fun yesterday, even though I was a tad nervous at the beginning.  I had 'volunteered' to be involved in 'The Battle of the Buyers' an event that our trade magazine - Supply Management was running.  Yes you guessed it - it was the Buying exercise that you see on The Apprentice with Sir Alan (superbly replicated by Dr Dick Russill yesterday).

We were split into 2 team, given £150 and had a list of items to get to pull together for a Hamper to be launched for Charity.  Some of the items were a VHS video of a Tom Cruise video (we were on the phone at one point to the kind old ladies of Age Concern whilst they routed through their VHS collection); 2kg of Saffron (a well known Supermarket may still have 10 bags for us on hold) and a Kazoo (yes what is it).

But it was a great exercise in teamwork (there were 6 on each team - 2 teams); planning (the key to many a  good negotiation); research; sourcing and negotiation (seeing if we can get the items for free or at a discount).  Both teams had very different approaches - as the Judges said one was a Hare and the other a Tortoise. 

Read the 5th August edition of Supply Management to see who won, and thank you to my contacts and friends that helped.

Is that a glimmer of hope I see?

In this week's issue of Supply Management (page 8), there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Ray Jones, who is head of communications at the Chartered Institute of Marketing said and I quote "the onus is on marketers to appreciate the value buyers can add to their projects. It is up to us to keep up to date with business and to be numerate enough to work closely with procurement to prove there is a good return on investment".

Sounds great. Now they just need to communicate that to their membership and all the marketeers in the UK maybe the world that have a block about engaging with their procurement teams. Here's hoping.