Procurement: time to buy in.(Viewpoint)(Brief Article)

Advertising Age, September, 2003

Procurement management expertise, brought to bear on evaluating advertising and marketing-services agencies, is a solution, not a problem. It can help measure and improve marketing's value, and it's time for client marketing departments and their ad agencies to buy in. There's advantage to be gained.

Change-continuous improvement-is the imperative. To stretch budgets, the new breed of procurement professionals is equipped to cut overhead, streamline processes and ensure that limited resources get spent where they add the most value.

Agencies need to get with the program instead of fretting that purchasing agents will nickel-and-dime costs, destroy margins and damage client relationships and brands. Good procurement practitioners know treating agencies...

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