Five steps to marketing harmony (keys to establishing a harmonious relationship with marketing colleagues)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 26, Issue 11

Meikle D.Supply Management, May 2010, Volume 16 Issue 11, Start page 34, No. of pages: 2

Discusses the past tendency for the marketing and procurement functions of a company to find it difficult to work together efficiently, the conventional pattern being that any cooperation takes the form of marketing handling the specification of the scope of work and then asking procurement to negotiate the best price, or where procurement is frequently kept isolated from any involvement in the process, on the grounds that marketing may be too complex, or that purchasing may damage a special relationship with an agency. Concludes that greater value could be achieved if the two sides worked together, and offers five tips to procurement departments to establish a harmonious relationship with their marketing colleagues, while reaching a satisfactory business outcome,including: getting a marketing education; establishing a common goal; adopting the right attitude; proposing, agreeing and above all executing buying strategy;and looking beyond the obvious for value.Article type: ViewpointISSN: 1362-2021Reference: 39AR201

Keywords: Marketing strategy, Organizations, Procurement,Sourcing, Supplier relations, United Kingdom