Marketing Performance

8 — Partners: Build performance partnerships with marketing service providers

Why do partners matter?

So you're the CMO. Do you want the CFO to tell the CEO that he is doing your job? Then don't read this chapter. Because sooner or later, the procurement department will review all vendor relations for your entire company. Chances are that the bloodhounds will dig up dozens, if not hundreds, of contracts with marketing service providers. Some of these vendors you will not even have heard of. Others – such as your lead creative agency – will be important partners that help you build your brand and drive marketing performance. In any case, the CFO will have a field day sorting you out. You don't want that? Then read this chapter.

“I want the kind of research that lets me see inside the consumer's head.” – “We need someone to track our brand in social media.” – “Let's run the best campaign money can buy.” As a CMO, you will have heard this rap before, probably from your CEO, or even the supervisory board. If only it were so easy. What do you do yourself, and what do you pay others to do for you? How do you select service providers? And how do you make sure that they do what you depend on them to do – and do it well? How do you keep them hungry, and how often do you check on them? Last but not least, how do you keep third parties from besting you, or charging you for services you never signed up for?

Marketers today depend on the support of an entire ecosystem of third-party providers, ...