Tuesday, January 02, 2007
2007: The Year of The Super-CMO
byMarketing is a tough way to climb to the top rung of the corporate ladder. Several studies have confirmed (see Wharton story, free sign-up required) that through the 1970s, most CEOs came up through the marketing ranks. However, starting in the 1980s, the finance department started edging out marketing as the way to the top job(s) in corporations. Today that is even more true. Why?
A major reason is that brand growth, leadership capabilities and the success of the corporate vision, mission and values is often interpreted through monthly/quarterly/annual P&Ls and balance sheets. This is true for both private and public companies. Finance people are accustomed to using these financial reports, and the data and metrics they supply, to back up their decisions, and their qualifications for making those decisions.
Unfortunately, over the last several decades, marketing began focusing on softer, more ambiguous numbers (brand awareness, purchase intention, quantitative/qualitative research, etc.) to support their cause. While those numbers are important, they often lacked the month-to-month visibility, credibility, and correlation to justify thousands or millions of dollars in marketing budgets. The low point appears to have been reached last year when the average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at a large company declined to only 23.2 months (BrandWeek).
However, it appears change is imminent, and thanks to a new breed of CMO, marketing may soon regain its place at the head of the table in the eyes of management and the board or directors. These new CMOs understand that marketing is complex, and becoming more so every day. They have the background and mindset to comprehend that contemporary marketing requires constant attention to brand, data and performance components. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has labeled this new breed as Super-CMOs and Growth Champions. According to an AdAge story (subscription required), the ANA makes the following points about Super-CMOs:
• These new “Super-CMOs” are becoming respected C-level leaders with others in finance, IT, operations, and strategy.
• The Super-CMO is empowered by top management to direct brand strategy, business development, innovation and ROI.
• Super-CMOs need a deep, cross-functional understanding of finance, IT, strategy, analysis and technology.
• Super-CMOs are becoming increasingly frustrated with traditional agencies that offer “magic and entertainment” as solutions, and instead want marketing partners who understand the complexities of data integration, business strategies and supply chains.
• Super-CMOs also want companies that can analyze transactional data, consumer segments, media, and messages to provide future insight that powers results.
These new CMOs know ideas and creativity are still critically important building blocks, but if you don’t have data to learn from success and failures, the smart insight-driven competition that do have the data will eat your lunch. Super-CMOs also know you must give management specific and compelling performance metrics to ensure marketing is supported as a high-return investment in growth and profit rather than viewed as a resource-sucking expense.
These new CMOs are greatly needed and will be in high demand. Some will arise to the challenge through a transformation within their present organization; others will come from the outside. No matter where they come from, they will empower new ways for corporations to grow their bottom lines in a challenging, technology-driven business environment.
