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ten-fold increase in searches from purchasing and procurement managers on behalf of their employers and brands. We started to wonder why, did our homework and now present the findings in this report."
The report cites financial pressures and a greater desire for accountability in the marketing spend as two inter-related issues behind the growing influence of purchasing in reviews and compensation negotiations. "But there are other factors, too," Meyst continues. "Those of us in the advertising, PR and related fields haven't done a very good job of building trust in how we do business or how we charge for the value we bring."
In conversations with Al Ries, author of The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR, Ries underscores the point that chemistry alone can't win accounts anymore and that advertising agencies in particular have done a pretty miserable job of understanding that fact. "You have to have the mindset of the purchasing agent," Mr. Ries says in the report. "Purchasing people deal in hard values; data, especially prices, terms, guarantees, etc. Advertising people deal in soft values such as creativity which can't be measured."
But what are the implications of this trend? The Agencyfinder report sheds light on the impact
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purchasing and procurement managers have had on the agency search process to-date. In the past year, clients have stepped over the unspoken boundaries of employee compensation and bottom line profitability with their agencies. One client identified in the report even asked pitching agencies for information on how they conducted criminal background checks on their employees.
One marketing consultant given an advance copy of the report raised a concern not directly addressed in the publication. "My greatest concern about a greater role for corporate purchasing departments has to do with their instinctive reaction to consolidate accounts and try to create economies of scale," says Mike Bawden, president and CEO of Brand Central Station. "The problem with that idea is that in many cases, the economies of scale don't exist - at least not to the degree expected by a purchasing manager who is used to buying more commoditized products."
Mr. Meyst estimates that approximately 7 to 10% of the USA's more accomplished ad agencies and PR firms are registered with Agencyfinder. "With over 4,000 top-ranked agency offices in the database, we're able to match just about any sized client with the right kind of agency." The service has been put to the test over the years, conducting over 3,300 searches since March
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