CMO Council Study Reveals Sales Groups Hoard Marketing Consumables to Circumvent Ineffective Marketing Supply Chain Operations

Damaged Materials, Slow Delivery, Lack of Inventory and Poor Visibility Into Operational Process Further Strains Marketing Budget and Diminishes Sales Effectiveness

(Palo Alto, CA - February 22, 2011)

Lack of confidence in the Marketing Supply Chain appears to be a major contributor to the hoarding of marketing materials by sales executives. According to the results of new a CMO Council study, nearly one in two sales executives over-orders critical marketing support materials by as much as 25 percent per order.

The online study of 117 sales leaders reveals that while sales values the content and tools developed to enable the sales process, the provisioning system fails at the point of delivery and fulfillment as 67 percent of respondents admit to facing challenges in obtaining materials from their companies.

In Straight Line to the Front Line, sponsored by NVSION®, sales executives admit that their material hoarding is in reaction to operational processes that either take too long or deliver damaged materials. While 48 percent of respondents believed that it was hard to get materials in time, meaning that over ordering was merely a “just in case” precaution, the majority of sales executives (64 percent) intentionally over-order materials in order to have the required materials on hand as the process of fulfillment takes too long.

Marketing is spending billions on the production of sales literature, premiums, merchandising items, hand-outs, signage, etc., but neglecting the process that actually gets these materials into the hands of key stakeholders, noted the CMO Council. Its executive director Donovan Neale-May, believes legacy systems, cumbersome processes and quality assurance oversights are big contributors to inefficient and tardy provisioning of essential tools for sales and channel organizations.

The messages and content being developed by marketing received high praise as 41 percent of sales rating the content as being relevant and informative to customers. Among the top issues identified by sales in the material procurement process include:

Materials taking too much time to be delivered (35 percent)Materials not being available in time for a product launch (29 percent)Damaged materials (13 percent)

One key issue stems from where and how sales executives are able to access content as the majority of sales executives rely on email requests to a field or corporate office to request materials. However, access channels to these materials only received marginal ratings, as 42 percent believed the systems were hardly effective or efficient.

“Marketing is not leveraging advanced technologies and process improvement standards to ensure that the materials that are being developed are making it to the intended audiences, whether internal or external to the organization,” said Mike Perez, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Marketing Supply Chain experts, NVISION. “The reality is that even the best message in the world can be negated by poor delivery. Marketers have the opportunity to further align with sales by looking at the operations of the supply chain that provision the front line with the right materials, through the right channels in a time frame that can best impact the sales process.”

The complimentary white paper is available for download by visitinghttp://www.cmocouncil.org/cat_details.php?fid=177

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 6,000 members control more than $200 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 12,000 global executives across 100 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, LoyaltyLeaders.org, Online Marketing Performance Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). www.cmocouncil.org

About NVISION

NVISION® is a division of North American Corporation (NA.com), a leading Marketing Supply Chain solutions provider, helping organizations outsource the operations of their Marketing Supply Chain. By leveraging North America’s leading Marketing Supply Chain consultancy practice, NVISION streamlines and manages print, promotional products and point of sale material for corporate clients utilizing our proprietary sourcing technology and supply chain expertise. Over the past five years, NVISION has saved over $50 million, an average of 20% in Marketing Supply Chain costs, for Fortune 500 corporations. www.nvision-na.com