Over the last few years, when discussing marketing and advertising with clients and prospects, I have been meeting with more company presidents, owners and C-level executives than I had in previous years. Missing from many of the meetings have been the marketing managers. The trend kind of snuck up on me and has become more pronounced since the beginning of the current economic downturn. I finally figured out why and it’s not good for the future of marketing managers. Far too many of them have turned into purchasing agents, completely ignoring strategy and turning creative into a commodity. It started years ago with printing. Most companies have shifted printing responsibilities literally to purchasing agents, individuals trained simply to compare costs and without the experience or training to evaluate quality. To them, all printers are the same and whoever can hit the deadline at the lowest price gets the job. They wouldn’t have a clue if called upon to evaluate paper samples, print quality, die-cuts or other nuances that can make an average print job a great one. Far too many marketing managers are doing the same thing with creative. Again and again we receive RFP’s from marketing managers who simply want a “cost” to produce a four-page brochure (or some other project). They may attach a timeline, but offer neither a creative briefing nor strategic direction. In order to keep the RFP (or RFQ) process fair, they decline to meet and discuss the amount of research involved, copy requirements, strategic foundation, etc. It is simply a brochure and they want a cost. They then compare that cost to several other “bidders” and pick the lowest one, quite often getting exactly what they pay for. This reduces the creative process to the lowest common denominator, price, and turns a strategic process into a commodity. I am not saying that quality is directly related to cost, as often it is not, but it certainly is directly related to the quantity and quality of information available. We have stopped responding to purely cost-based RFP’s because we have found that those companies and marketing managers who base their choice on fees alone, generally are more difficult to work with. I would also suggest to all marketing managers that any creative group that happily bids on a project without asking questions and without strongly encouraging a pre-quote meeting will not be motivated to deliver the best work possible, but rather the lowest-cost work possible. The reason higher-level executives are getting involved in the process is that they are more likely to understand and place value on strategy and Return On Investment (ROI). They recognize that a general contractor who bids on a project without seeing the architectural plans is not likely to do a great job. They instinctively understand that marketing done well is an investment, not an expense, and insist on a ROI that can only be achieved with attention to strategic goals. Good marketing managers have a thorough understanding (whether it’s a project or a full campaign) of the goals, the audience and the message, and want to share that information with the people with whom they’ll be working. A good agency knows that it needs that information to do the best possible work and prefer to work with companies and marketing managers who share their vision, literally and figuratively. The bottom line is that if you’re looking to work with an outside agency and your primary decision-making parameters are deadlines and dollars, not strategy and creative, you’re making a potentially costly mistake. Leave purchasing to the “agents” and marketing to the “managers.” Scott Harris is the owner of Mustang Marketing, a full-service marketing agency serving the San Fernando Valley for more than 20 years. You can reach Scott at [email protected] or visit Mustang’s website at www.MustangMktg.com.
