CMO Council Study Sees Marketing Supply Chain Materials Hitting The Mark But Operational Gaps Detract From Frontline Effectiveness

Up to 50 Percent of Marketing Consumables Deemed Waste As Marketers Lack Critical View Into Provisioning Logistics, Consumption Metrics and Localized Needs

(Palo Alto, CA - August 16, 2011)

Front line personnel from store managers to field marketing directors agree that marketing support materials are big contributors to the selling process. But there is still a massive amount of waste and obsolescence due to poor tracking, provisioning and just in time delivery of sales and merchandising materials to the field, reports the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.

According to a new survey by the CMO Council’s Marketing Supply Chain Institute, some 68 percent of frontline, customer-facing executives have experienced difficulty using marketing systems for replenishing critical consumables, making it challenging to meet the needs of those engaged in the entire process. In fact, just six percent give access to the ordering of marketing consumables an excellent score.

In the Promotion Commotion Study, sponsored by NVISION®, in-store and front line resources believe that simple profiles that collect critical information ranging from square footage of stores to demographics and makeup of customers could help tailor the specification and delivery of promotional materials to the requirements of each location. This customization and optimization of the Marketing Supply Chain would maximize the potential for impact, while also eliminating waste and over-spending.

Marketing is investing billions in the production of point of purchase displays, sales collateral, brochures and in-store materials. There is little regard for the actual targets, locations and resources required to turn these displays into demand creation assets, noted the CMO Council. Its executive director Donovan Neale-May, believes marketers should profile the literature and sell-in needs of customers, prospects and sales locations to better forecast demand for brand logistics and material support.

“Understanding the needs and requirements of different selling environments and situations should be an integral part of marketing’s field and channel provisioning process,” noted Neale-May. The CMO Council surveyed more than 100 store, branch office and dealer sales managers across leading industry sectors in North America.

According to 51 percent of those surveyed in the second quarter of this year, location-based marketing consumable forcasts, predictive analytics and automated fulfillment is rarely in place. However, most believe that this level of insight would allow marketing to:

Embrace technology to reduce in-store obsolescence and waste (30 percent)Notify store or field assets on new material arrival, allowing the front line to plan accordingly (23 percent)Localized and personalize materials to best reach the locations target market (19 percent)Get the right number of items required to properly cover floor space (14 percent)

“As we have seen before, oversights in the Marketing Supply Chain are resulting in over-spending and missed opportunities to make a real impact on the sales and demand process,” said Mike Perez, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Marketing Supply Chain experts, NVISION. “While the economy has improved and marketing has started to reinvest in demand generating programs, we are not in a position to ignore the staggering amount of waste that is being created by an unchecked and unmeasured Marketing Supply Chains. Customers demand a flawless experience, and now, as we see from these results, our front-line resources are looking to marketers to deliver the materials and consumables that will advance that experience.”

The complimentary white paper is available for download by visitinghttp://www.cmocouncil.org/resources/forms/promotion-commotion/index.php.

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