Marketing organizations today are under increasing pressure to deliver quality services to their internal clients while holding down costs. To remain competitive, Marketing leaders need to understand how their expenses, services scope, resources, organizational structure, and use of off-shore labor sources compare with those at other companies so they can identify and close performance gaps. 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.

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Best Practices, LLC Strategic Benchmarking Research
MARKETING SERVICES EXCELLENCE:
Driving Costs Down & Effectiveness Up

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Table of Contents
 Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3
 Research Overview
 Participating Companies
 Executive Brief
 Best-in-Class Comparison
 Cost-Cutting Practices that Pay off for Benchmark Participants
 Management Practices that Support Global Consistency
 Marketing Services Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 11
 Creative Services, Support Services, Market Research & Analytics
 Marketing Shared Services Model — Including In-House
Agency & Center of Excellence Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 24
 Performance Metrics & Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 37
 Best Practices & Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 47
 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 56
 Company Information
 Detailed Data Charts
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Executive Summary
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Topics IncludedStudy Overview
 Organizational structure types
 Funding sources
 Drivers of program effectiveness
 Core creative & support services
provided
 Market analytics & market research
offerings
 Comparative metrics for lead time
& cost of delivering 10 key services
 Cost-cutting practices
 Global locations for services
 Key functional objectives
 Effective performance metrics
 Future trends
 Best practices & lessons learned
Research Objective: This cross-industry study
investigates how companies are effectively structuring
& operating the Marketing Services function within an
environment characterized by increasing globalization
& shrinking resources.
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 &
the number & type of services provided at leading
companies. Results will provide Marketing Services
organizations with a reference point they may use in
future strategic planning.
Methodology: Best Practices, LLC engaged 24
Marketing leaders at 23 companies operating Marketing
Services functions within North America, South America,
Europe & Asia to participate in an online benchmarking
survey. In addition, research analysts conducted deep-
dive interviews with selected respondents to collect
qualitative data & insights.
Research Overview: Objectives, Methodology & Topics Covered
Best Practices, LLC conducted this cross-industry benchmarking study to identify industry metrics
and innovative practices that Marketing and Shared Services leadership can use in strategic
planning for the Marketing Services function.
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Participating Companies Represent Nine Industries
Benchmark Participants
Twenty-four Marketing Services leaders from 23 different companies participated in this benchmarking
study. They represented nine different industries. IT/Computers and Healthcare/Pharma are the largest
of the industry segments.
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Represented Industries
* Other: Communications,
Logistics, Energy, Association
Management, Real Estate
*
(n=24)

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Marketing Services
Landscape
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Back to Table of Contents

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Marketing
Analytics /
Market
Research, 22%
Other, 11%
Creative
Services , 36%
Marketing
Support , 32%
Creative & Support Services Make up 68% of Workload
On average, benchmarked functions estimate that creative services and support services each make
up about one-third of the Marketing Services workload, while marketing analytics/market research and
other functions consume the rest of the time.
(n=22)
Q. Estimate the percentage of your function's work that falls into each of the following categories. If you have no
services in one of the categories, specify "0." (Total should equal 100%.)
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Max 100%
75th Percentile 50%
Mean 36%
Median 30%
25th Percentile 20%
Min 0%
Marketing Services Categories:
Creative Services:
Max 80%
75th Percentile 40%
Mean 22%
Median 13%
25th Percentile 5%
Min 0%
Max 60%
75th Percentile 49%
Mean 33%
Median 38%
25th Percentile 16%
Min 0%
Marketing Support:Marketing Analytics / MR:
Max 70%
75th Percentile 20%
Mean 11%
Median 0%
25th Percentile 0%
Min 0%
Other:
* Other: Compliance, Packaging, PR, Sales
Admin, Strategy, Systems Team, Engineering
Distribution
*

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Digital/Web, Email & Collateral Are Core Creative Services
Email communications, digital marketing and collateral development are the top three mostly commonly
provided creative services. On average, participants provide 5.8 of the eight benchmarked creative
services.
57%
57%
65%
70%
70%
83%
87%
91%
13%Other (specify):
Merchandising (Point of sale collateral for retail channels)
Search engine marketing
Copywriting
Supporting channel marketing
Social media (Blogs, User groups, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Collateral design and development (e.g., brochures, data
sheets, white papers)
Email communications (Inbound, email direct marketing &
internal emails)
Digital (Web publishing, develop and maintain web page and
banners)
(n=23)
Q. Please indicate which of the following creative services your Marketing Services function provides.
(Choose all that apply.)
* Other: Ad campaigns, Events signage; TV production/ cinema + apps; Video/Photography/Proposal
*
Creative Services Offered:
% Responses
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Centralized Shared Services Model with Offshore Outsourcing
Asia U.S.
South
America
A Marketing Shared Services model that has been successful for one interviewed company involves
centralized leadership in the U.S. with outsourcing of transactional and technical support services
to offshore locations in Asia and South America. Creative services are at headquarters and other
U.S. locations.
Transactional/ Technical Support Services:
Outsourced to offshore locations
• Create lists/ segmentation
• Perform analytics, “number crunching”
• Email campaigns
• Update/create web pages
• Build landing pages
• Create marketing collateral
• Copywriting
• Social media content
• Channel marketing
• Central management
• Strategy & policy
• Global oversight
Marketing Shared Services Leadership
Centralized at U.S. Headquarters
U.S.
Creative Services:
U.S.- based staff

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Other:
Japan, Colombia,
United Kingdom
& Singapore are
among additional
locations where
participants
operate Marketing
Services nodes.
91% Have Marketing Services Staff in U.S. Locations
The United States is the only geographic area where nearly all of the participating MSS groups locate
some marketing services. Common locations for nodes outside the U.S. are India, Canada, China, Brazil
and Mexico. On average, participants have service locations in three of the eight benchmarked regions.
Q. How many Marketing Services locations does your company has in each of the following countries or
regions? (Choose one for each country/region.)
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For 91%, Service Offerings Vary Across Regional Nodes
(n=11)
Q. Do your different Marketing Services locations offer the same group of standard services or is there
specialization? (Choose one.)
Location Specialization:
Other (specify):, 9%
Locations are mostly
the same but some
have extra services
46%
Service offerings for
the centers are not
standardized
27%
Every location offers
the same core
services only
9%
At least one location
is identified as a
Center of Expertise
9%
* Other: A few have in house creative services, some use outside agencies
*
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Most of the participants have some variation in services across nodes or regions, with only 9% offering
the same services at all locations. For the largest group (46%), services are mostly standardized
across locations, but the some nodes offer more services than others do.

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45%
9%
14%
5%
5%
36%
59%
50%
59%
50%
50%
41%
18%
36%
36%
45%
50%
59%
32%
Budget level for function
Number of hubs/regional nodes
Level of outsourcing
Operations in low-labor-cost markets
Number of services offered
Integration with IT
Integration with Shared Services functions
More Integration & Less Budget Are Top Changes on Horizon
More than half the participants expect to see increased integration of Marketing Services with Shared
Services and with Information Technology at their companies over the coming year, while 45% anticipate
reduced budgets. In addition, about a third anticipate more operations in low-cost labor markets and an
increased number of hubs or regional nodes.
(n=22)
Q. What changes does your Marketing Services function expect to see in each of the following areas over the next year?
(Choose one for each.)
No Change IncreaseDecrease
Anticipated Change:
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% Responses

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Use a Vendor Management Strategy to Get Best Prices
Vendor management strategies, teaming with procurement and automating the vendor price quote
process cut costs for participating companies.
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1. Work with the global purchasing
or procurement team to prequalify
vendors.
2. Use preferred providers.
3. Get three bids on all work.
4. Negotiate with selected vendors.
5. Develop templates for the quotes
and load them into the marketing
services management system to
automate and expedite the quote
process.
“We can send out a quote within a
matter of seconds. All of the vendor
information and the quote template are
already loaded into the system. All we
have to do is fill out the online form
with the specific project requirements
and push a button. The vendor
information populates automatically.”
—Interviewed Director, Creative Services
Successful Strategies

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Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that conducts work
based on the simple yet profound principle that organizations can chart a
course to superior economic performance by studying the best business
practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class
companies.
Best Practices, LLC
6350 Quadrangle Drive, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919-403-0251
best@best-in-class.com
www.best-in-class.com
About Best Practices, LLC
Link for Report: Marketing Excellence: Driving Costs Down & Effectiveness Up