June 3 - 6, 2024
Commentary
How CMOs Can Keep Their Jobs
- by Tony Quin , Columnist, August 22, 2018
So what’s the deal? Why do “CMOs continue to remain under siege,” as Greg Welch from Spencer Stuart describes it?
From what I’ve seen, these turbulent CMO waters are not just the result of never-ending pressure for better results, but also come from a general lack of sophistication of those landing in the seat.
While CMOs, especially those who rise through the ranks, might understand a number of digital tactics, they lack a comprehensive understanding of how the new marketing world works. As we hear all the time, the rise of the savvy digital consumer has changed everything. The question is, exactly how?
That’s why CMOs need a sophisticated understanding of how — and when — the array of channels,
technologies and strategies should be deployed.
The first job of marketing leadership is to ensure a brand has an integrated strategy, with each component in the marketer’s toolbox fitting
into a bigger picture.
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While individual tactics may be effective, the real value over time comes from the way an integrated system shares data and insights and develops a profile of a consumer’s behavior. This combines with the system’s ability to classify viewers, track activity, deliver targeted content, communicate and measure performance.
Integrated marketing technology, now so readily available, enables companies to automate much of this daily work of finding, cultivating, converting and retaining customers, while also helping to ensure all interactions work to strengthen the brand and move the sales process forward.
But software and integrated process are not enough. Having a capability and knowing what to do with it are two different things. That’s why the underlying strategic planning that a brand must do is an essential foundation of a successful system.
Planning tells the system how to segment and understand the audience, what messaging and content to use at every interaction, where and when to interact, and which tactics and channels to use. Planning stocks the system with the knowledge and insights it will need for the heat of battle, equipping it not only to be in the right place, but also deliver the right message every time.
Despite enthusiastic forays into digital channels and upgrades to various marketing assets, a considerable number of companies still haven’t connected the marketing dots and are now wondering what they are doing wrong. What they may fail to realize is that in a world where the consumer rules, brands have little choice but to do everything well and super-serve their consumers — and about the only way to do that is with an integrated marketing system.
The good news is that, unlike in days past, when marketing success required marketing genius, the biggest opportunity for many companies today is just to get a modern marketing system in place. In and of itself that can still bring terrific competitive advantages to companies across the spectrum.
Soon these kinds of integrated systems will be table stakes, but for now they’re still game-changers.
Interesting post Tony.
I believe it takes more than technology to make a CMO successful. And as you mention, it is not so much about the data you’ve got as the questions you ask and how it is all integrated.
While data analysis has become an additional skill for all CMOs, I think that cultural sensitivity is also important as geographical barriers have become less important than linguistic ones.
I wrote a post on my take, following several of my CMO clients asking for advice on how to get or keep their jobs. Please read it and share if you enjoy it, as I am doing for yours. It’s called Head of Marketing, How Can You Keep Your Job When Most CMOs Are Losing Theirs? https://c3centricity.com/head-of-marketing-how-can-you-keep-your-job/
Thanks again for your article.
Denyse and Tony both interesting and insightful articles and posts. With more knowledge available and more people pulling on our time I beleive the trick is knowing what to know and how to learn what you need to know quickly; then care to implament it in a way that is going to matter to the company and you in the long run. It does not matter the marketing program if you forget one of the tent polls that covers the campaign; your mistakes will be left out in the rain and then entire program will fall apart over time. Surrounding yourself with the right people who know the marketing questions to ask and what to look for in the answers goes a long way to making a CMO look good and proform better. Intodays quickly changing jobs to many CMO's are compensated with big salaries and low bonuses based on proformances. Turn that around and you will find better marketing teams, measurability of productivity and longer tentures for CMO's through the country.
Great points Rocky. I forgot about the importance of the teams that support the CMO. And their importance is even more critical when it contains someone who was secretly hoping for the job. I have witnessed both good and bad teams where someone was passed over for the job Nd I consider it to be the CMOs first job, or challenge, to get the team aligned.
Thanks for adding this to the seemingly endless tasks of today’s CMO.
As an aside, I find the small salary and big bonus an interesting concept, not just for CMOs but for all the c-suite. It is time they took their jobs personally, and not just rely on the efforts of their team members to help them shine.
Sorry, but this article and the comments sound like branches off the tree of philosophy that the CMO's job and essential skills have changed due to the technology and digital revolution. I have observed there are other more important factors at work.
First, many CMOs are busy trying to avoid new projects that might be risky and that take away from the time needed to handle the CEO's emails/directives and the normal daily load of routine activites and organizational bureacracy.
Second, many lack a feel or sensitivity for marketing and the attribute profile of their best consumers. Few understand, appreciate, and know how to use good market rresearch. Many have a team of people trying to protect their job and are thus afraid to challenge the CMO and/or introduce new ideas.
Third, and of equal if not greater importance, the CMO is an easy scapegoat for the CEO to blame and fire when corporate financial goals are not being met.
Hey Ron,
Sounds like you have been working with some really troubled CMOs! Luckily most are not in any of the situations you describe, at least amongst any of my clients. However I do understand that a few are really just the CEOs assistant as per your point one.
Concerning your second point, I don't think any of us can have too much understanding about our consumers / customers, as they are constantly changing so we need to continuously connect, know and understand them.
On you last point, I think the problem has been that CMOs have had a harder time showing marketing's ROI compared to sales or operations. However in today's data-rich world this is finally changing. This is why I believe that the CMOs job hasn't changed as such, but rather the job requires more skills than mere creativity.
Hi Denyse--not sure we disagree that much. However, I do wonder how much CMO experience you have personally had. CMOs can be bogged down for various reasons without being the CEO's assistant. We agree on the need for good data analysis but I have seen many CMOs that seem uncomfortable with market research and are often not fuly engaged with their customers. Finally, we seem to agree that the CMO job has not changed that much. I have always felt that creativity was probably a secondary skill requirement relative to being a strong analyst and strategist for product, sales, promotion, etc.