Chief marketers as Change Agents

Chief marketers as Change Agents

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  Chief marketers asCHANGE AGENTS Building performance-driven marketing organisations BY DONOVAN NEALE-MAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CMO COUNCIL C hief marketing executives are now challenged to reshape, CMO as a Change Agent restructure and re-skill their organisations. Marketing groups must now be accountable for demand While the title of Chief Marketing Officer has become far more widely generation and market differentiation through integrated, adopted – particularly in the North American market – the territory of executive ownership and responsibility is still widely debated and seldom multi-channel campaign management. This requires new clearly understood in any organisation. competencies and knowledge in business analytics, database Although the appointment of a CMO sends the right signal, the credentials, management, strategic planning, digital marketing, field sales, character and capability of this new C-level executive are of critical channel operations and financial modeling. importance to internal acceptance. Too frequently, CMOs are appointed To help incoming CMOs, the CMO Council conducted best without the unanimous buy-in and support of executive peers, who often practice interviews with more than 20 recently appointed CMOs. work hard to undermine this new role, while many with a CMO title come The resulting findings were compiled and published in a new without the necessary credentials to do the job. From the CMO Council’s standpoint, today’s CMO should bring a history of authority leadership initiative, Renovate to Innovate: Building P&L responsibility on a geographic or business line level; have experience Performance-Driven Marketing Organizations, which outlines critical in the field or channel with previous ownership of customer relationships steps marketing leaders must take to make a strong and immediate and frontline deliverables; have influenced and shaped product design, impact. development, distribution and pricing strategies; have been a key architect Today, delivering tangible financial return and more transparent of global business innovation, product diversification, market entry and marketing ROI, as well as providing predictive performance expansion, as well as customer revenue optimisation. A CMO must also own corporate branding, be able to assess and predict models and improved spend allocation, are new requirements performance, and be artful in utilising the marketing mix to drive every for senior marketers. Much of this must be driven by 1) better aspect of the business. operational visibility; 2) business activity monitoring; 3) customer Also, a true CMO must be the CEO-in-waiting, groomed in every aspect. touch point and experience insights; 4) supply and demand side Few succeed, but this could change if realities and requirements for a CMO data feeds; 5) plus proprietary knowledge gathering and realtime are reflected in the appointment process. market analytics. One singular requirement for any chief marketer is the ability to be a Other challenges and market changes demand more capabilities change agent, as over 50 per cent of new CMOs are hired to fix broken marketing organisations. The following 10-step plan will provide guidance and expertise from marketing organisations and their outsourcing on becoming the change agent your organisation needs. partners. These include: 10-Step Plan for New CMO Entry • 24/7 global economy and increased competition from new contenders 1. Understand the company’s culture, mindset, customer and • Monumental impact of the Internet in transforming customer competitive conditions. access and engagement, as well as expectations and attitudes 2. Establish alignments and ‘listening’ relationships with CEO, peers and stakeholders. • Multiplication of sales channels and customer interface 3. Identify the marketing detractors, influencers, advocates and technologies that must be synchronized and exploited for champions globally. competitive advantage 4. Audit and assess internal competencies, processes, capabilities and • New sources and volumes of external marketing and sales data perceptions. that need to be analyzed and leveraged 5. Determine leaders and laggards, inventory deficiencies and resource • Fragmentation of markets and proliferation of media channels requirements. 6. Map marketing strategy and model organisational change around that require more sophisticated targeting audience reach plans and deliverables. 7. Unify, enthuse, mobilise and strategically focus marketing assets and Most importantly, chief marketing executives must revitalize and update partners. marketing group cultures and mindsets. 8. Initiate upgrade and replacement process in key competency areas. Benchmarking and turnover of staff will become a reality as 9. Show results early and often with business-building, lead-generating CMOs seek to optimise the yield and accountability of their teams marketing projects. worldwide. Reporting structures will be revamped, and automated 10. Provide metrics-driven report and spend plan to management on a quarterly basis. processes introduced using hosted and in-house solutions and services. Credibility and respect for marketing must be gained from Membership in the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is available at no other areas of business, including the executive suite, sales, product cost to all senior client-side marketers in Southern Africa. development, finance and IT groups. Register at www.cmocouncil.org. Email [email protected] Some leading-edge companies have started to crack this new marketing code, implementing new processes, technologies and measurement systems to optimise their marketing output while others are struggling. The new corporate mandates often clash with the traditional mindsets. 30 [ the Journal ] J