CMO’s: One Size Does Not Fit All

As Marketing reinvents itself, what role do Chief Marketing Officers play? How do you view those who run the marketing function in your business? If you work in marketing, how do you characterize your role? Traditionalist? Lifer? Technologist? Firefighter? “Jane” of all [marketing] trades? Take a look at a recent informal poll that CMO Magazine ran to find out how readers responded, then take the quiz yourself.  You’ll see that when it comes to defining their roles, one size does not fit all CMO’s.

Writing for ”CMO Magazine” (print publication has now ceased publication), Constantine von Hoffman makes the case that while a majority of companies are revamping their marketing function, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all CMO. She says marketing responsibilities now include work across the organization for driving innovation, competitive advantage and, ultimately, business success.

In the “old days,” von Hoffman says there were basically two types of marketers: those who excelled at advertising and PR, and those whose talents were in supporting the sales force. But as marketing has grown increasingly more complex, so too have the career paths and skill sets of today’s top marketers. To illustrate her point, von Hoffman interviewed 5 executives and painted these five profiles:

Traditionalist: The clamor for ROI has created the Traditionalist, who knows that you can’t just measure your way to breakthrough products.

Lifer: All the accompanying churn of marketing talent has re-emphasized the importance of the Lifer, someone who has spent so much of a career at one company that its brand values are wired into his or her DNA.

Technologist: Information technology’s growing importance to the marketing function has spawned this type of executive, who straddles both disciplines.

Firefighter: In a world where you’re only as good as your last quarter, there is now the Firefighter, a marketer with a talent for beating back the flames of corporate crisis.

Jane of All Trades: Finally, the organizational complexity of many corporations has produced a chief marketer who understands the need to make corporate fiefdoms work together because her work experience spans various functions.

There are still core aspects of a CMO’s function that run across all categories, says von Hoffman: Successful brand and equity management; turning customer insights nto strategy; developing different initiatives, from broad-reach advertising to highly targeted direct marketing; developing new products and great marketing communications skills; and an eye for ROI.