New report reveals winning strategies to improve internal quality of marketing services

Best Practices, LLCJan 6 2014

Marketing organizations are under increasing pressure to do more with less. To meet corporate performance objectives and remain competitive, marketing management leaders must understand how their expenses, services scope, resources, organizational structure, and use of off-shore labor compare with those at other companies.

A benchmarking study by research and consulting leader Best Practices, LLC found that 50 percent of companies participating in the study use a Marketing Shared Services (MSS) or similar structure to provide marketing services across their organization. And 80 percent of the "high performing" companies in the study use a MSS or a similar model. High-performing companies were identified by the time and cost of deliverables, weighted by the number of services provided.  

"Marketing Services Excellence: Driving Costs Down & Effectiveness Up" is a 64-page study that probes how companies are effectively structuring and operating the Marketing Services function in an environment that is characterized today by increasing globalization and shrinking resources. The study can help marketing executives and managers identify winning strategies they can use to improve internal quality and effectiveness.

This cross-industry benchmarking study provides metrics and critical insights for evaluating the effectiveness of the Marketing Services/Operations function, including creative services, support services and market research & analytics services. The study objective was to develop comparative industry metrics for deliverables cost, lead time & quality, as well as for structure type, drivers of program effectiveness and the number and type of services provided at leading companies.

This report provides:

• Comparative average industry metrics for cost and lead time required for 10 standardized Marketing Services deliverables including brochures, technical/white papers, web pages, print ads, direct mail, email, banners, data sheets, site refresh and web page translations
• Successful cost-cutting practices that pay off for research participants
• Key management practices that help promote global consistency across multiple services locations
• Comparison of varying Marketing Services models including Marketing Shared Services, Center of Excellence and In-House Agencies
• Organizational structure diagrams
• Effective performance measures
• Trends for outsourcing, off-shoring and funding of Marketing Services

The study is based on survey responses from 24 Marketing Services leaders from 23 companies across nine business sectors, with healthcare and technology the largest segments. Interviews were conducted with selected participants. To learn more about this report, download a complimentary report excerpt at http://www3.best-in-class.com/rr1257.htm. For related research, visit our Best Practices, LLC Web site at www.best-in-class.com/.