Minimizing risks and maximizing efficiency. If you want to break down the essence of today’s marketing supply chain into its most basic—yet vital—components, Engelina Jaspers says you can start there.

With more than 30 years of experience working with Fortune global companies, and her time now as a branding and marketing consultant, Jaspers has sat on both sides of the table. Working with literally hundreds of agencies—from mega firms offering everything under one roof, to specialty boutiques and freelance consultants—the author, speaker, and brand and marketing advisor has a keen perspective into what makes marketing supply chains shine, or bomb.

Without good supply chain management (that process of minimizing risks and maximizing efficiency in creating, producing and distributing marketing materials), every link in the chain can become more cumbersome, risk-prone and costlier in terms of the time and resources it demands. That means you must have a chain of suppliers capable of providing print, promotional products and point of sale to market your products and services. This chain typically includes outside help such as brand managers, marketing services, agencies, direct sales teams, buyers, printers, fulfillment houses, and others.

From Jaspers’ perspective, solid marketing supply chain management requires teaming with a partner that can effectively handle the promotional, print and distribution sides. By offering a high-touch service model and extensive partner network in key markets, this group can streamline and reach the objective your brand wants.

“When you hire a marketing agency, you’re essentially hiring people: their expertise, experience and service,” says Jaspers, who also created the MARKETING FLEXOLOGY Management Framework™—a mindset and a toolset for future-proofing careers, teams and marketing platforms. “Like any good hiring decision, ensuring a strong cultural fit and alignment is crucial. If you view agency partners as an extension of yourself, as I do, you will take as much care in recruiting and managing agencies as you do your own internal staff.”

“Primarily, to be successful, there must be a way to have global reach,” Hall says. “Specifically, a brand must have a goal of continuity on a global scale, so embracing a supply chain approach is critical to success. That comes by effectively managing the players and letting them manage their processes.”

Nikolay Osadchiy, an Associate Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, studies how supply networks affect risk and operational performance, and its behavioral regularities on pricing in revenue management. In his opinion, a marketing supply chain is not very different from any other supply chain. Take, for example, the auto parts supply chain, where some parts can be bought in advance inexpensively, while others will need to be delivered quickly and therefore at premium prices.

“Similarly, a print and swag provider would likely have both kinds of offerings, and here one supply chain would not fit all,” Osadchiy says. “For large projects with a sufficient lead time, it is reasonable to work with cost effective suppliers. For quick turnaround projects, there is a need for in-house or at least domestic production capacity. On the outbound logistics side, drop shipping works well—shipments go directly from a manufacturer (even if it’s located overseas) to a customer.”

For today’s marketing communications executives, managing a marketing supply chain can be a complex balancing act. Ideally, the best option is to have one system managed by one/two groups within an organization for productivity, efficiency, time management, brand consistency, waste management and spending controls. The best plans can nullified if a poor vendor can’t ship and track on time, an extremely important component to the marketing supply chain.

The key is to take the time to articulate your service requirements and see what solutions your marketing supply chain vendor comes back to you with. Are they speaking your language? In a landscape where time and ROI is everything, marketers have specific goals and responsibilities, which means areas like managing inventory, shipping, and tracking materials, department spending, and duplication of efforts are not the best use of their time.

If a marketing department ultimately is responsible for serving internal customers and driving demand, they will not come close to providing a level of service as that of an expert marketing supply chain company. Patricia J. Royak, CEO of Royak Consulting, a firm specializing in global omnichannel brand strategies, believes that the benefits of employing a MSCS can be seen in the most obvious of places—within marketing’s Ps. “Who is our consumer? Wherever they shop, it’s likely not the same place as yesterday. Supply chains need to be very flexible and have shorter run cycles for personalization and traditional supply elements.”

“Look at some type of TQM (Total Quality Management) process, which ensures that the entire supply chain end-to-end is clear about inputs and outputs are known, named and owned,” Royak says. “Ensure that your goals and metrics are aligned. For example, have a playbook agreed to as to the who, what, when and where you are targeting your products. This is not just limited to sales and marketing, but it’s critical to have the supply chain vendor involved as well.”

Implementing a solid supply marketing chain process will protect your budget by utilizing the tools that streamline each link in the chain. Materials can be printed in exact amounts and delivered where and when they are needed, branded swag can remain relevant and on brand. End-users can customize and order their own approved marketing materials. Vendors can be consolidated.

“Wearing multiple hats becomes harder and harder,” Hall says. “Time becomes almost non-existent as you try not to drop a ball. Mistakes happen, deadlines get missed, expensive last-minute shipping costs get added and the added pressure to find a solution in the middle of this storm becomes immense.”

By having a foundation in place from the early stages, you and your team can grow with the support needed, easily adding users, inventory, and departments along the way. In the end, your company can focus on the programs and your MSCS partner can focus on the execution during hyper growth.

It is a problem solved before there is a problem.

Building the perfect marketing supply chain system (MSCS) is as simple as knowing where and how to begin. Here’s what the ideal MSCS might look like:

• Assign part numbers to your marketing collateral to eliminate breakdowns with the content team and version control
• Inventory is managed and maintained in one location to avoid loss of costly products left behind or stored in remote locations
• Shipping is standardized and controlled via preferences set up by program owner
• You can easily give access with permissions and approvals to multiple users within growing organization
• If your products run low, you will receive automated notifications before you realize you need something that you don’t have
• You can manage budgets by department and easily see what departments
• You can get customers and teams the materials they need in a few clicks
• Real-time reporting, allowing fact to drive decisions