5 Key Insights for CMOs from CMOs

I’m a member of great social media community called The CMO CLUB. The community is for senior marketing leaders to come together and share ideas, and thoughts on the issues of the day.

 

Pete Krainik, started the club and has done a great job at taking the club to the next level. Earlier this year Pete asked the Truman Company, an executive marketing consulting firm, to help The CMO Club develop a set of actionable insights, gathered from club members in an effort to help navigate these trying times, and build successful strategies for 2009 and beyond.

 

The result of this effort was “Insights from CMOs” — the collective wisdom of nine CMO Club members based on in-depth interviews with the Truman Company conducted in early 2009. I thought I would share the top 5 insights as I think its good advice in this age we are in:

 

1.   Customer Centricity: Marketers must take responsibility in brining the voice of the customer into the organization and help the organization identify where, and how to add value to these customer relationships. I agree, but I also think this is one of the most challenging areas. With more pressure on short term revenue generation, and decreasing budgets this reality is harder to achieve, but we shouldn’t lose focus of the importance.

 

            "It’s marketing’s job to make sure that the consumersare at the center of the process."

2.   Marketing must secure a strategic role in the organization: Marketers must focus on demonstrating how they add value and ROI to the business in order to have a voice at the table. True, and depending on the organization this can be a tough one. Sometimes marketing is viewed as nothing more than the “cake & cookies” functions or “those guys that make pretty pictures”. If this is your reality, then it is imperative that you shift the discussion, and the function of marketing as the full value of marketing is not being met.

 

                    "Every time I sit down in front of the CEO or the CFO, I should act like I’m pitching an idea to venture capitalists."

3.   Marketing must become the key agent of change within the organization-Marketing can do this by shedding light on the customer. If you’re successful in points 1 & 2 you will naturally be the agent of change.There are also several dimensions of change taking place that marketing must lead in as noted below.

 

 

4.   Internal stakeholders are just as important as external stakeholders. This is a key insight in my view as marketing must align itself with sales, product development, service and the c-suit if it is to be a successful function. One reason why the turnover is so high in the CMO role is due to this insight.

 

            "Spend 50% of your time educating your internal stakeholders on the value of marketing, and speak in their language."

 

5.   Drive short term revenue but ensure the longer term view. This is especially true in this environment. Marketing must focus on driving revenue but not at the expense of keeping our eye on the long term strategy, and in supporting and enhancing our brand promise to our customers and markets.

 

 

All quotes and graphics in this blog post are from the executive presentation which I have posted here: Download CMOInsightsPresentationforNYSummit19May09. The full report can be found for members of the CMO Club.

Comments

[Cindy Kim]

Ed,
Once again - great blog post. You made a very important point in this blog posts in that marketing is not simply about pushing a product or brand out but work as a change agent within the organization. It's also marketing to your constituents (internal) as well as external. I think @chewitt has a great blog name (whatdoesmarketingreallydo.com) and that speaks to how the organization views marketing and the role of marketing. These points really highlight the critical role marketing plays in the organization when it comes to building a culture and fostering that, creating a cohesive brand and market awareness, generating demand for the company's products and services as well as educating the broader community on industry trends and challenges.

[ed]

Thanks for your comments Cindy.