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The 2nd Annual CMO's Agenda
Rise of the Chief Transformational Officer
J. Mark Carr and Alan Hart
Additional analysis and findings is available in the full version of The CMO's Agenda. To obtain a copy of this report, please click here
In The CMO’s Agenda, our first series of research with CMO’s and other lead marketers, we introduced the concept of “Chief Transformational Officer” as a new frame for the top marketer’s role within an organization. In our most recent interviews of more than 30 additional lead marketers from mid-market to Fortune 500 companies representing a variety of industries, this concept of playing a transformational role was echoed and further crystallized.
Our research summary provides what we hope is a short but provocative look into the day-to-day world of today’s lead marketers. In the report, we attempt to answer: What does the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and by extension, marketing, within an organization need to be accountable for? How can CMOs ascend to the role of strategic advisor at the board level? Which strategic initiatives and processes provide the best opportunity for lead marketers to prove value and gain influence? How has marketing changed over the last 10 years? And what will the next 10 years bring? What should I start doing tomorrow that I am not doing today?
We have subdivided the findings into three major sections – the redefined role of marketing leadership, a summary of the insights from looking at the marketing function, and reflections on the evolution of marketing. In the full report we wrap-up with a short list of illustrative actions for a lead marketer to consider.
Topline Findings
- The next step in the CMO Role: Over the last decade the role and stature of marketing has been raised at most organizations. What was once largely a communications role has evolved to a position that – at least at progressive companies – owns a market-driven roadmap for the enterprise, is a leader of cross-functional collaboration and has a seat at the executive table. Our research suggests that the next evolution of the CMO role will go yet another step higher, and should seek to become a true transformational leader within the organization and a strategic advisor to the CEO or Board.
- Redefining the role of CMO: To earn the broader, more strategic role described above, lead marketers must accept accountability for business drivers and demonstrate impact.
Accountability for revenue: Marketing should be driving the business, but this role is earned, not a birthright. Demonstrating value can take many forms, but a central theme was accountability for sales or revenue, which ultimately provides the opportunity to have a greater voice in setting business direction and more latitude to experiment.
Cut first or be cut: In the downturn, marketers that were fairing better emotionally and professionally made the first move in identifying where dollars could be conserved, and how to shift resources to higher quality or more measurable initiatives. In doing, so they clearly demonstrated corporate citizenship over defense of the marketing kingdom, and earned the respect of their peers.
Adopting the role of strategic advisor: Market-driven processes like new product development or voice of the customer programs provided a more rigorous and formal opportunity for marketing to assume a leadership role. Many leaders are using external market-facing processes such as these to increase influence in other areas like engineering, operations and customer service, and step closer to the role of strategic advisor.
- Growth is the goal: Not surprisingly, lead marketers describe their role as the brand steward and the head of marketing, which is charged with growth. However, the definition of growth varies among those interviewed. When we dug in to how the lead marketers’ organization supported or drove growth, answers varied widely and spanned from all aspects of business growth to a very narrow focus on acquiring new customers.
The size of the CMOs sandbox can vary widely – new customer acquisition is the only common truth. Surprisingly, many more marketers were focused on customer acquisition only vs. owning both acquisition as well as the maintenance and growth of existing customers through retention, cross-sell and up-sell.
Measures of growth vary as well, but the best ones are married to the business model. Those marketers with greater leadership inside the organization tended to define their measures for growth more broadly and aligned them closely to the company’s specific business model.
- Marketing Effectiveness: Largely lip service? Lead marketers we spoke with tended to give themselves high marks on improving the effectiveness of their organizations and marketing spend. Marketers frequently mentioned that they have been shifting the marketing mix away from traditional media towards more measurable options as the most common example of the improvements they have made. But our observations of company performance and the findings we’ve gained through separate research we’ve conducted made us skeptical of these comments*. Those CMOs with the most concrete examples and who seemed to be achieving the most positive business results actually tended to score themselves the hardest, suggesting that many others may be fooling themselves in the progress they have made in this important area. Taking a more critical view of marketing effectiveness, and driving towards measurable results that can be shared with peers is a critical step towards building bridges with other functional areas.
- The Future of Marketing: One of the most interesting aspects of our CMO conversations (and fun for the participants) is when we ask them to reflect on how marketing has changed in the last ten years and look into the crystal ball for the changes they predict for the next ten years. Below are the top trends that defined the last decade and the top emerging trends identified to the next:
- Strategic importance of marketing will increase
- Marketing science will continue to play an increasingly important role
- Transforming customer centricity into a meaningful initiative
- Shift in the role of brand management to orchestration/architect
- The 2nd inning of one-to-one marketing – Mobile?
- Talent will be a bigger challenge
Methodology
The research was conducted primarily through telephone conversations and a handful of face-to-face interviews. A discussion guide was used to steer the discussion through critical business challenges, the role of marketing within the organizations, critical challenges, as well as the evolution of marketing among other topics.
Alan Hart, a senior manager with CMG Partners, led the CMO research effort supported by senior associate Erin Hyatt. Mark Carr, a partner at CMG Partners, provided oversight and guidance for the research effort, and participated in most of the CMO interviews.
* Please visit www.marketingperformanceadvantage.com for more information. The Marketing Performance Advantage is a landmark survey CMG Partners recently completed among more than 400 companies on how they are approaching marketing measurement and management, and who is faring best.
Contents of Full Report
1 Introduction
2 CMO 2.0: Redefining the Role of Marketing Leadership
“The death of the traditional marketer”
Get comfortable with revenue
Cut first or be cut
Becoming a strategic advisor
3 Marketing as a Function: Insights and Findings
Marketing’s Role in Growth
How is growth measured?
Marketing effectiveness: Largely Lip Service?
4 Reflections of the Evolution of Marketing
Marketing; the last decade
Marketing; the next decade
5 An Action Checklist for Improved Leadership
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