Procurement does Cannes

There was a discussion at one point with Sir Martin of WPP and Keith Weed of Unilever (Chief Marketing and Communications Officer). Below is an extract from it - I have highlighted the two sections where they mention Procurement.

"Continuing on the effects of the slowdown, Sorrell said that there’s a sense of procurement and finance function becoming more powerful than the marketing function and that’s led to decline of marketing as an entity. From a consumer goods point of view, Weed replied, there’s been no erosion in the importance of marketing as a function. “Our growth is driven by consumer demand and marketing is the key to fuel the demand.” Weed accepted that the buying side of marketing, that’s procurement, can become more professional. “But this improvement should deliver creativity and effectiveness,” he stated."

I agree with Keith Weed about marketing being central to meeting what the customer requirements are but not convinced about totally about the need to develop the professionalism of procurement.  I wonder what Unilever Marketing Procurement team have to say about that ?

Recouple, Decouple - new word needed

I had an interesting day today with all my meetings relating to third party production suppliers increasingly talking direct to clients. Something that we all know has been on the agenda for a few years, certainly in the press market. But the likes of Unilever, Boots and most recently Reckitt Benckiser have gone out into the market place for TV post production suppliers.

It is funny as in an area such as print, we have for many years, used print buying companies to buy print for us or gone direct to the paper mill if we are sourcing large volumes of paper. On press / artwork production, I think that around 70% of the top 100 advertisers have now deals direct with the suppliers. But Procurement getting involved in TV has been at a slower level. I don't want to open the old decoupling debate that was around a few years ago, but wonder why it is at a slower pace. All comments welcome of course.

I am also just finishing off some work for a client about press production, and what the view in the market place is on it. If anyone has 5 minutes, I would appreciate your views on this quick survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N298LKP