Why Marketing Matters: Strengthening the Defense Supplier Base Through Better Communication with Industry

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that the Department of Defense (DoD)'s primary methods of marketing requirements and soliciting information from prospective suppliers inhibit the military's access to innovative nontraditional companies. To conduct this research, we leveraged qualitative and quantitative research techniques, including assessing the features of more than one million DoD solicitations from https://beta.sam.gov and surveying small businesses on the readability of DoD requirements. Our results concluded that DoD solicitations are not conducive to attracting nontraditional suppliers because they are difficult to discover, lack ample response time frames, are not easy to read or understand, and lack critical information. These and other factors deter innovative, nontraditional companies from participating in the DoD's market research process, in turn limiting the pool of suppliers available to the military. We offer recommendations for how the DoD can improve the way it writes and markets solicitations to attract and engage innovative, nontraditional companies more competitively.