It’s Thanksgiving Eve and I hope everyone is gearing up for the official start of the end-of-year holiday season. I’m “off” today at home watching the kids while my wife braves the grocery store. Therefore it’s a light blogging day. But if you’re looking for some holiday reading before you leave the office, take a peek at the article I wrote for CMO.com last week.
CMO.com is a relatively new site from Omniture, and itself a great example of meaningful marketing. Omniture created CMO.com to provide further information and guidance on trends and changes in the marketing world. I was excited to have a chance to publish what I consider a manifesto for the modern CMO. My thesis in this piece is that the #1 task of a CMO today is to shift his or her entire organization to a new marketing model—one that revolves around creating advertising that adds value to customers’ lives, and is marketing that people choose to engage with.
Take a read, let me know what you think, and I highly recommend that you sign up for CMO.com’s article alerts!
Bob-
Checked out CMO.com. Would have left a comment there, but I had no desire to register to leave a comment after it killed my Safari 6 times.
Anyhow, I read your article/post and wanted to convey the following. Perhaps the reasons CMOs fail so often is that they run the same basic blueprint. It goes something like this:
1. Bring In The Consultants: Sure, BCG and the like will tell me what’s wrong, rather than talking to actual employees.
2. Reorganize: X group needs to site near Y group, Z person should now report to A person, B group will now have dotted line responsibilities to C, etc.
3. New Process: We need to streamline and make 1+1=3. Blah, blah, blah.
4. Internal ReBranding Launch: Classic corporate marketing project. New screen saver, coffee mug, etc.
5. Agency Review: Existing agencies let’s see those capabilities…and while we’re at it, let’s talk to some new ones. Perhaps the incumbent stays…rarely.
6. Key Hires: AKA, people I’ve worked with in the past and I trust.
7. Change The Packaging: Yeap…we’re gonna fix the tangible aspect of what consumers touch.
8. More Emotion: We need to move beyond reasons to believe to reasons to care. Yeap, we need more soul in our work and need to go beyond rational proof points.
9. Prioritization: Some brands simply matter more than others. Some initiatives matter more (e.g. interactive vs. FSI)
10. Start Looking For A New Job: The writing is on the wall.
In 13 years I’ve seen more than 20 CMOs come and go. Heck, at ConAgra Foods I in 3 years, I saw 2 CMOs and the equivalent of a CMO (they had Zyman acting as a CMO) go. The blueprint is the same time and again. Read AdAge, BusinessWeek, or the like and you’ll see the same blueprint.
If we want the CMO position to evolve, to truly become what it was always supposed to be, then we need to do two things:
1. ReThink the type of person that should be hired as the CMO. Look across the landscape of companies across the country. The same retreads (not unlike professional sports head coaches/managers) are hired. After all, surely, if they couldn’t succeed at company X, they’ll succeed at company Y. If you look at the companies that are really thriving they’re taking a very different page and approach to what/who a CMO is.
2. ReThink the blueprint for how to be a CMO. An old colleague at ConAgra Foods explained to me that there are two types of CMOs; little “c” and big “C.” The little “c” focuses on operations and the approach/process that leads to great marketing. The big “C” focuses on the vision for great marketing. Perhaps, rather than picking between the two c’s we need CMOs that offer both.
Again, great article, and as you can see, it’s clearly stimulated some great thinking from my end.
You’re exactly right, Adam, this is the normal course of events. Especially if you adjust stage #10 such that people start looking for a job just before the rest of the organization notices that the CMO has not really accomplished much. The point on “retreads” is also on target. The longer I’ve been in the business world, the more people I see that seem to make it to a new high-level job with ease, regardless of true talent or results. It’s as if they’ve made it on some inner circle and recruiters are just looking to fill a role versus truly understand the quality. If you think about it, this is very similar to a lot of advertising agencies, right? The short pitch process, like the interview process, favors those who can “look sexy” versus actually deliver and prove themselves.
But I digress…Great points. High quality CMOs are out there, they’re just widely distributed and up-and-coming.
And if anyone is looking for another good examination of where CMOs need to go, check out this great report from Forrester and Heidrick & Struggles: http://www.heidrick.com/NR/rdonlyres/AC86DF4D-DA48-41A4-97E4-637B3E92253E/0/TheEvolvedCMO.pdf