• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 8, 2011

Austin, Tx. -- The bane of some marketing companies existence is the growing influence of those bottom line procurement officers.

Unilever worldwide marketing chief, Keith Weed, speaking at the 4A's Transformation event, doesn't like it. He says, "some marketers have been hiding behind procurement."

Weed says procurement executives should be responsible for signing off on big decisions -- but only after all meaningful and thoughtful decisions have been made by marketing executives.

"We don't work in the commodity field," says Weed. "You want to use them in the right way."