The Value Play: Why Marketing Procurement is Your Next Strategic Advantage
“Procurement’s job isn’t to find the cheapest agency but to invest in the right one.” That mindset shift has redefined the way Benson Cheng, Emerging Market Senior Director of Procurement at GSK Pte Ltd, approaches marketing partnerships across Asia. In this exclusive interview, he shares how marketing procurement has moved far beyond savings towards driving innovation, shaping customer engagement, and becoming a true business partner from the strategy table onward.
Marketing Procurement: A Strategic Shift
Marketing procurement has evolved significantly over the years. While once focused on cost savings and efficiency, it has now become a strategic function that drives business impact by aligning procurement strategies with marketing goals. Having worked across industries like FMCG, consumer healthcare, and pharma, Benson has witnessed this shift firsthand.
Marketing procurement is uniquely positioned to drive strategic impact because it directly influences the effectiveness of campaigns and the customer experience. When procurement acts as a strong business partner, it contributes not only to cost control but to both quantitative and qualitative ROI.
From Cheap Spend to Smart Spend
There’s a significant difference between savings and value. Today, marketing procurement must focus on smart spend, not cheap spend. In pharma, for example, the goal is to drive positive impact for patients and healthcare professionals through effective marketing engagement.
Smart spend starts with purpose. While traditional procurement often chases the lowest price, marketing is about value and ROI, requiring alignment with brand priorities, strategic understanding, and the ability to translate those into solutions well before cost negotiations begin.
“For marketing, it’s not about rate cards, it’s about delivering smart solutions.”
Putting Strategy into Action
A recent example: through data analytics, we built an influencer dashboard across several countries to guide mindful decision-making on influencers campaign, weighing them against other alternatives, and identifying the right partners. Cost was just one factor, but we also considered alignment, risk, and effectiveness.
In another case, we partnered closely with senior commercial leaders and external partner to co-develop a new operational model for innovative products across 20+ countries. Here, procurement contributed upstream, in the decision-making process with influence on scoping and approach of investment.
These are just a few examples where challenges became opportunities to lead transformation in emerging markets.
Measuring What Matters
Depending on the maturity of the function and your relationship with the business, marketing procurement can use a wide range of metrics beyond cost:
- Value creation and "what else we can get"
- Agency and customer working experience
- Make vs. buy influence
- Risk management and contract strategy
- Performance management
“Would you buy a fake designer bag at a discount or invest in the real thing through a trusted provider?” That metaphor reflects the mindset we apply when evaluating procurement value.
These principles translate into tangible metrics like customer feedback, efficiency enhancements (e.g., fewer hours, faster creative development), and overall return on investment, going beyond mere rate cards or direct cost savings.
The Challenge: Building Trust
The biggest hurdle in shifting from savings to value? TRUST. And it’s not just about procurement expertise, it’s about understanding the external marketing ecosystem and internal business priorities.
You must speak the right language to connect with your audience.
That means understanding the business and having the ability to speak the business language, while connecting the dots between commercial and procurement. Genuine engagement with senior leaders, transparent conversations, and a human-first mindset are what build long-term partnerships.
Driving Collaboration with External Partners
Procurement is the face of the company to our agencies and providers. If we want innovative solutions, we must invest the time and effort to incentivise our partners to bring their best forward.
That begins with trust and transparency. It continues through regular strategic reviews, shared visibility, and alignment on long-term priorities with the right participants. But for Benson, the personalized engagement before and after contracts helps create co-developed, timely solutions.
Supplier Innovation in Action
“Supplier innovation and performance management are two sides of the same mirror.”
One example Benson recalls clearly: A supplier initially wanted to exit a project because they didn’t see the value of their contribution. After a direct conversation with the founder, where they showed how their work would improve healthcare outcomes for patients and HCPs, their mindset completely shifted.
The result? Faster development, improved quality, and a solution that made us the first pharma company in the market with a fit-for-purpose offering, delivered with lower risk and higher engagement.
Technology as a Strategic Enabler
Emerging technologies like AI and Power BI have transformed how marketing procurement delivers insights that drive better decision making. The capability to adopt and adapt those technologies will add significant impact on the strategy development and implementation through real time data.
From external agencies using AI for content creation to internal dashboards tracking campaign impact, these technologies translate to efficiency (faster & cheaper) and quality (better & consistency).
In our influencer work, data helped shift marketing’s thinking from operational execution to strategic assessment, driving smarter investments and stronger results.
Lessons for Broader Procurement
Although Benson’s focus is marketing procurement, he reckons the same principles apply elsewhere.
His advice to others:
- Spend time with your suppliers (Gemba-style learning)
- Be part of the solution, not just the “buyer”
- Invest in talents and solutions
Procurement’s Role in the Bigger Picture
Procurement sits at the crossroads of investment, risk, and innovation. By partnering with finance, legal, compliance, and marketing, we can become an enabling pillar for business growth and a gatekeeper for responsible decision-making.
Final Thoughts
The evolution of marketing procurement isn’t just about expanding influence but anbout changing mindsets, building trust, and investing in outcomes that matter. As Benson’s journey shows, when procurement leads with purpose, partnerships, and data-driven insight, it doesn’t just save money, it shapes strategy.
Because when we move beyond savings to trust, insight, and value creation, we stop being support functions and become true business partners.