The Evolving Role of CMOs

Interesting article on McKinsey Quarterly about the evolving role of CMOs.

Today, many chief marketers focus mainly on building brands, making advertising more effective, and perhaps market research. Although these responsibilities aren’t going away, CMOs must address several other areas as well: leading company-wide change in response to evolving buying patterns, stepping up efforts to shape a company’s public profile, managing complexity, and building new marketing capabilities throughout the company as a whole.

Easier said than done. I guess this only works if you've got a supportive CEO. Most of the time, you try to do this and you're immediately written off as the meddling b*tch.

The resulting business changes will extend far beyond traditional marketing: a company won’t succeed without heeding the voice of customers and their evolving habits in buying goods and services and in interacting with companies and brands.

Ahhh...yes. But how many companies actually do that? In theory, they like to think they are heeding the voices of their customers. Often, though, it's always a case of what's convenient for them and, then, twisting that to somehow accommodate the customers' needs.

The CMO is a natural candidate to help lead the company as a whole toward business changes that reflect evolving customer needs.

We know that. I know that. Not everyone likes it. When you've got mammoth egos to traverse, the idea of being gorged by a lion seems a better option.

The increasing importance of third parties will force businesses to enhance their awareness of blogs, chat rooms, and other social-networking media and to develop new strategies both to capitalize on marketing opportunities revealed by consumers and to defend themselves from attacks.

Which becomes a problem if you're stuck with a CEO who isn't net savvy. You can explain till you're blue in the face and they will never get it. Not because they lack the ability to do so but because they just don't have the patience for it.

CMOs are indispensable for meeting tomorrow's customer and marketing challenges.

The word "indispensable" will not sit well with many execs.

But CEOs too must take an active role, not just because those challenges are large, but also because close involvement will help them know if their CMOs have the right mix of skills. Today, though, many CEOs spend little time on marketing challenges and treat them as “just for the CMO.” One reason: the percentage of CEOs with marketing backgrounds has declined in favor of people from operations or finance.

Personally, I find it hard working with a CEO who has very little marketing background. It's hard to sell a campaign to him, much less get him to see the light of day.

CEOs steeped in finance are forever stuck to the P&L. Everything is about profit margins forgetting the fact that profits come when customers' needs and wants are satisfied and exceeded. Meanwhile, CEOs coming from an operations background find it hard to grasp the need for marketing. They know they need it but they don't often understand why. They have a tendency to limit their marketing functions thinking that all they need is flawless operations and voila!

The article outlines 3 steps for CEOs to help their CMOs:

Take time to understand what's really happening with your customers. Find out how the needs of different customer segments are evolving, who is saying what to your customers on which blog, who are the social influencers of your product, and how customers are changing their approach to decision making.

Yes, but how many of them have the patience to do that?

Foster the right connection between the CMO's efforts and other parts of the organization. This connection is not only critical for bringing together marketing, PR, and corporate affairs but also important when CMOs are asked to lead major corporate initiatives on strategy and business models.

It would be nice if CEOs do not pit marketing against all other departments. This is not a beauty pageant or the Iron Chef, Battle Ego version. I appreciate CEOs who exert extra effort to get his team to gel together so they can row towards one direction. I recognize that I need other departments to get my campaign to work. It would be just as nice if other departments equally recognize that they need marketing as well to get their departments to work.

Be the "thought" partner for the CMO as she transforms the marketing department. A lot of change—skill building, the development of specialists, and geographic decentralization—will be required to create the marketing organization of the future. Even a CEO who lacks a marketing background typically has more experience with this type of organizational-development effort than the CMO does—and can be an extremely valuable counselor.

Unfortunately, most CEOs think that marketers were hired for their brains, ergo, let them do all the thinking and never mind if they grow a tumor in the process.

David Court wrote the article. I highly recommend you read it.

Labels: CMOs, marketer, Mckinsey Quarterly

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