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 ?

WPP and Ad Age again

There is a story on today's Brand Republic re WPP targeting clients technology budgets - intriguing.  Is this on repro, asset management, work flow?.  Be good to understand more about the offering and also the rationale behind it which is linked to a client's increasing digital requirements.  Click here to see the article - WPP technology.

There is an article in today's Ad Age entitled ' Procurement - We're about Value, Not Price'.  They have interviews with the Purchasing people at Pfizer and Intel. It seems to cover the same ground that the numerous other articles have covered - the role of procurement, are they trained, should they make decisions on agencies etc.  Whilst it is good that they are getting that view, it does not seem to move the relationships and this category on.  I do have the article if any one is interested in reading it. 

I am more interested to see the output of the ANA Conference as it is covering some really good topic areas and is about looking to the future.  The future is bright as my old company used to say.