Mission:

Marketing Solutions’ mission is to assist Clients in optimizing the performance of their marketing supplier network.  This will be accomplished through improved supplier performance and contract compliance, reduction in vendor network costs and improved transparency and control relative to marketing supplier performance.   The goal; Improved marketing performance.

Philosophy:

We operate in a challenging environment, which requires resolute management, sound decision making and teamwork in order to accomplish an organization’s business objectives.  The Marketing supply chain is a critical component in both demand creation and selling and administrative expense.  Managed properly, the marketing supplier network can significantly impact the bottom line.  However, if not maintained in-market performance can suffer and expenses can rapidly increase, negatively impacting the efficiency of an organization’s marketing spend.

Managing a marketing supplier network can be likened to operating an automobile.  It requires regular performance monitoring, maintenance and fine tuning to operate at peak efficiency.  Occasionally, parts will need to be replaced to maintain the effectiveness of a car’s performance.  The same can be said of a marketing supplier network.

Marketing Solutions offers Clients the tools to assess performance, identify process gaps, drive alignment and to develop strategies for improved supplier network efficiency and effectiveness. 

How we assist in improving performance, while strengthening supplier relationships:
 
1.  Drive alignment between the organization's business objectives and the resource allocation decisions of each of your suppliers.
2.  Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each one or your marketing suppliers to eliminate redundancies and focus efforts.
3.  Communicate expected deliverables and establish the criteria to be used to evaluate performance against each deliverable.
4.  Maintain honest, two way communications across every facet of your supplier relationships, encouraging feedback at every turn.
5.  Build consensus among your internal stakeholders to help gain momentum for your key marketing initiatives.
6.  Invite peer review of Marketing's performance and socialize the feedback across your supplier network.
7.  Assess the breadth of your supplier network, focus on fewer, higher quality supplier relationships.
8.  Structure supplier compensation to incent and reward extraordinary performance.
9.  Drive complexity out of your supplier network... step # 1 in driving costs down.
10. Ask good questions of your suppliers (and yourself), while repeatedly pushing for better results.

To be fair, it is not easy to coordinate the activities of a network of supplier organizations, with resource and staff constraints and multiple demands on time (yours and your suppliers).  Further, the foundation upon which you built your vendor network and the selection criteria which guided supplier selection may have been solid and well reasoned at the time it was conceived.  Are those strategies as relevant today as they were at the time?  Has your network been reviewed and or retooled to reflect the current challenges of the organization?  

        “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” 

                                                                                    - Winston Churchill