Best Practices for Creating a Marketing Spend Category Roadmap

The Marketing spend category has its fair share of complexities and sensitivities, making it difficult at times for Procurement to support the Marketing function, especially if there is a lack of category knowledge on Procurement’s end. Driving collaboration, maximizing investments and delivering value are key success factors when managing the Marketing spend category and demonstrating results.

As companies continue to navigate new challenges at this time and seek out opportunities and strategies to remain profitable, no spend category is off limits. In the past, Marketing was often one of the last few areas considered for cost cutting measures, due to its strategic nature, direct impact on a company’s ROI and various other reasons. And for some companies, this is still the case. However, an overall shift has occurred within the past decade to the point in which Marketing Procurement is in high demand when it comes to Category Management hires. And the current crisis we all find ourselves in could very well compound this demand. Many companies at this time are not in a position to hire and onboard new category managers, but an expectation may exist to support the Marketing function in a smart and effective way.

In an upcoming webinar hosted by ISM NJ, Corcentric will share some insights we’ve gathered over the years in supporting various Marketing groups and driving budget optimization across several Marketing spend areas. As Corcentric’s Marketing Sourcing Practice lead, I will be leading the discussion and speaking specifically to the following topics:

• How to properly engage Marketing, offering up potential conversation starters
• Our approach to categorizing Marketing spend, presenting our taxonomy and definitions
• Various sourcing levers applicable to certain Marketing subcategories/budget areas
• Recent trends to be aware of pertaining to Marketing investments and the agency/supplier landscape

The planned talking points can be considered relevant to many different groups that currently touch the Marketing spend category or are striving to learn the category in order to properly impact it. If you are a Procurement Professional recently tasked with tackling the Marketing spend category, you will walk away with some tips on how to properly engage your Marketing counterparts. If you are a Marketer that has recently started working with Procurement, the webinar could be worth attending to understand how Procurement ticks and also learn about some sourcing strategies that could very well apply to your current state. Marketing Sourcing consultants, agencies and other industry experts are welcome too! Overall, we’ll discuss ways that Procurement can partner well with Marketing and create a roadmap together that is centered around the right objectives and spend areas.

The presentation will be held on Wednesday, June 3^rd at 1pm EST. Members and Non-Members of ISM are encouraged to tune in – and it’s free for all registrants! Sign up before 10am EST on June 3^rd to secure your spot. See you there!