Faced with increasing pressures from CEO's and CFO's to maximize the return on marketing spending, marketers are beginning to look for ways to improve the efficiency of marketing operations.  The Chief Marketing Officer Council has recognized the growing significance of this issue by launching a dedicated knowledge center called the Marketing Supply Chain Institute (MSCI) to focus attention on the importance of improving the productivity of marketing supply chain activities and processes.

Recent research by the MSCI highlights both the economic significance of spending on marketing materials and the huge opportunities that exist for increasing the efficiency of the marketing supply chain.

• A majority of companies spend at least 20% of their total marketing budget on marketing materials.


• Over half of the total spending related to marketing materials often results from product obsolescence and from activities such as storage, fulfillment, and inventory management.


• Just 25% of marketers have performed a comprehensive cost analysis of their marketing materials supply chain, and only 11% have implemented new workflow systems to reduce costs and inefficiency in their marketing supply chain.


• Seventy-three percent of companies do not track the obsolescence of marketing materials, and of those that do, 40% say they waste 20% or more of their materials because of obsolescence.

But to capture this growth opportunity, PSP's must be prepared to demonstrate and prove the value of these solutions to each potential customer.  I've recently published a white paper that describes the process for measuring and quantifying the value of a marketing asset management solution.  The primary audience for this white paper is corporate marketers and financial executives, but managers of web-to-print solution providers will also find it useful.

If you'd like to obtain a copy of the new white paper, just send me an e-mail at ddodd(at)pointbalance(dot)com.