The Way Forward: The Journey from Tactical to Leading Marketing Procurement
The WFA Sourcing Board published a report — “Project Spring” — back in 2020, defining best-in-class marketing procurement standards. In early 2023, WFA published a follow up report, focused on the journey forward, in response to many inquiries to learn “how do I do this”. The report reflects on the achievements of the Sourcing Board over the past three years and focuses on three of the four pillars of Project Spring — 1) people, 2) partners, and 3) performance.
The group identified four phases of maturity and then provide advice on how to move from one phase of procurement to the next level of maturity.
The Four Phases of Maturity
- Tactical — the CFO or CMO may reach out to establish better buying
- Defined — Putting in place processes and standards
- Optimized — you are in the room, you are part of the conversation
- Leading — you are an extension of the marketing leadership
Jennifer McLachlan of Procter & Gamble, asked Jose Gonzalo of Haleon and Sherry Ulsh of the Hershey Company to give examples of moving from one level of maturity to another, across the pillars of Project Spring.
Pillar One: People
Opportunities will arise for marketing procurement to leap from one level of maturity to the next. Once this happens, it is important to be able to sustain your seat at the table. This can be done through data and knowledge. At Hershey, the team come from different backgrounds. In the past four-to-five-year journey to move from tactical sourcing to a more strategic level, the team have continued to look for people that are continuous learners, that have curiosity, people with the ability to influence well, people who are take a lot of information in and to synthesize it and people who are storytellers. Through this, Hershey has moved into the Optimized phase of marketing procurement maturity.
Since marketing procurement doesn’t own the budget, influence isa key success factor. You must understand your category before you can influence. You need to step into the shoes of the marketer and the agencies to see how you fit into the eco-system. Don’t attempt until you have the connection and relationship with your marketing partner and agency partners.
Pilar Two: Partners
At Hershey, supplier diversity has been a focus on supplier diversity for the past 20 years, but primarily it has been focused on the direct category side. In the last 4–5 years the focus has been on the indirect side. This year, Hershey has mandated that diverse partners will be included in RFPs above a certain level of spend. By introducing the accountability from the top and down, Hershey is expecting to see a step change in its diversity spend numbers.
Pillar Three: Performance
Procurement often hears “no” and it is important to listen to the feedback. By listening to the feedback you gain respect and trust. It is also important to build consensus among several stakeholders on the marketing side. By collaborating on projects, the results become co-owned, and the buy-in will come easier during that process. Resilience is an important trait when improving marketing procurement maturity along the scale. Often, we hear no more than once and unless you try again and come in through a different door you will not progress the maturity. By making the changes in the maturity a “non-procurement” thing and by making sure it made the Haleon agency models better and fairer, it has resulted in a sustainable shift towards increased maturity.
In summary, always focus on establishing strong connections and building on relationships is key to successful marketing procurement. Once you have gained a seat at the table, keep utilizing your traditional procurement skills to drive rigorousness into relationship building and lead important conversations.
