| | A new book from
management consulting
firm Booz Allen Hamilton
and the Association of
National Advertisers
(ANA), featuring
interviews with top
marketing chiefs,
reveals that marketing
is gaining increased
importance within
companies that aspire
toward robust growth.
Corporate marketing
organisations are
undergoing major
transformations and are
increasingly fulfilling
a significant role in
driving business
performance. Leading
chief marketing officers
(CMOs) are tightly
integrating marketing
with other corporate
functions as they get
closer to customers,
capture the benefits of
new media, and demand
more from their agency
partners. The book,
commissioned by Booz
Allen and the ANA and
published by
strategy+business Books,
uncovers why, as the
firms' ongoing joint
research shows, revenue
growth and profitability
are strongest among
companies that elevate
the role of marketing to
the highest possible
level.
"In any company, the
CMO has to be not only
the consumer-insights
champion, but also the
person who is really
valuing what the
enterprise is working
on," says Procter &
Gamble's CMO Jim
Stengel.
CMO Thought Leaders:
The Rise of the
Strategic Marketer,
edited by Geoffrey
Precourt with an
introduction by Gregor
Harter, Edward Landry
and Andrew Tipping, | |
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| | features interviews with
15 of the world's most
influential and
effective marketing
leaders who are
redefining the practice
of marketing as they
help drive their
companies' growth
agendas. Across
industries, from Jim
Stengel at Procter &
Gamble to Beth Comstock
at GE's NBC Universal
and John Hayes at
American Express,
marketing chiefs are
aligning their marketing
strategies with
management goals, and
working more closely
than ever with
manufacturing,
distribution, sales and
finance to deliver
results.
"Today, the role of
the CMO demands openness
to experimentation, an
inclination towards
pioneering, and an
ability to integrate
marketing with strategy
as never before," says
Edward Landry, vice
president at Booz Allen.
"The stakes are high for
CMOs today; Spencer
Stuart's latest research
showed that average
tenure at 100 leading
consumer goods companies
is now just over two
years – and the number
of vacancies in the role
has doubled since last
year. To be successful
'growth champions' for
their organisations,
CMOs must be empowered
to be curious, to take
risks, to learn, and to
sometimes fail, but
always to grow."
Six important themes
emerged from the
interviews with leading
CMOs, revealing that the
business of making
powerful connections
with customers is in the
midst of unprecedented | |
|
| | change:
● Put the customer
at the heart of
marketing
Adopting a
customer-centric
perspective is an
integral part of every
successful marketing
organisation, and it no
longer relies on
intuition. CMOs are
pushing their
organisations on every
front to gain sustained
exposure to what their
customers are thinking
and doing. "The customer
influences almost
everything that happens
in marketing today, from
research, to engagement
with innovation and
product development, to
the vehicles companies
use to communicate with
their customers," says
Bob Liodice, president
and CEO of the ANA.
● Make marketing
accountable
Finding ways to
accurately measure
return on investment
remains a thorny issue
for CMOs, and is the
leading factor that
brings marketing under
pressure from
management. Research
from Booz Allen and the
ANA finds that 90% of
marketers across nine
industries see
measurement as a major
challenge. The most
successful CMOs have
convinced colleagues
that marketing
accountability takes
place on two levels: the
specific return on
marketing programmes,
and the overall health
of the business and
brands. "I find that my
colleagues will support
me if they see the
results of our successes
and ... the discipline | |
|
| | of our efforts, and
quite frankly, the
transparency of our
failures," says John
Hayes, CMO of American
Express.
● Embrace the
Challenges of New
Media
Booz Allen's and the
ANA's ongoing research
suggests that
traditional advertising
still accounts for 80%
to 90% of the marketing
expenditures at consumer
companies. Still, every
CMO featured in the book
has an appetite to go
out on a limb and try
new ways to connect with
customers. "Consumers
are telling us that they
want to be in control of
the storytelling, and as
part of that desire,
they want to engage in
advertising in different
ways," says Beth
Comstock, president of
Integrated Media at NBC
Universal.
● Recognise the
new organisational
imperative
Successful CMOs are
driving marketing
forward as an integral
part of the enterprise
that nurtures the
overall health of the
business and its brands.
For Pepsi-Cola North
America's CMO Cie
Nicholson, the bridge
between marketing and
innovation is critical
to her team's
performance; at Diageo,
CMO Rob Malcolm's
responsibilities include
marketing, sales and
product innovation. To
foster growth, CMOs are
cultivating the creative
and analytical strengths
of their people,
encouraging specialised
skills, and emphasising
training. "In marketing, | |
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| | you need to use both
halves of your brain,"
says Diageo's Malcolm.
● Live a new
agency paradigm
CMOs expect a new
level of partnership
from their advertising
agencies and the
ancillary companies that
work with them. They are
assembling multi-agency
groups, getting them to
collaborate, and in some
cases to compete – all
in the name of a better
product. To survive,
agencies need to be in
lockstep with their
marketing counterparts
in finding new ways to
get the message out.
"They need to get more
integrated," says P&G's
Stengel. "They need to
go digital. Those that
are making those changes
are turning away
business. Those that
haven't adjusted are
struggling."
● Remain
adaptable
"In the face of
competition, new
technologies, and
acquisitions, leading
marketers are taking on
change and keeping the
marketing agenda moving
in pace with their
management colleagues,"
says Andrew Tipping,
vice president at Booz
Allen. "Adaptability has
become inherent in the
way CMOs respond to new
media, hire and train
their people, and bring
a marketing mindset to
other parts of the
business. Successful
CMOs live these
principles every day."
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