New report from Vivaldi Partners Group on the changing role of marketing in organisations says marketers need analytics acumen, commercial insights and collaboration skills to stay relevant
A new consultancy group’s report on the changing role of marketing has stressed the importance of courage, collaboration and commercial instinct if marketing leaders want to continue to be successful.
The Vivaldi Partners Group study, The Changing Role of the CMO was based on interviews with senior marketing executives globally and found respondents are now accountable for market success, not just market perception. CMOs have also adopted a critical role in shaping the strategy for products as well as driving the agenda of the management team, with a P&L mindset geared towards optimising marketing investment.
The report also highlighted the shift of brand power to consumers and pointed out channel-centric planning has been by replaced by real-time, consumer-centric planning.
“Successful CMOs morph into their customers and become their voice,” the report authors stated. “Telling one story is not enough – it is about understanding the consumers’ paths to purchase, being there at the right time, and bringing these stories together in a seamless and relevant way.
“Marketing is moving from a persuasion to an influencer model.”
Other major areas of change impacting the role of the CMO are organisational and operational transformation, and technology innovation.
As a result of its interviews, Vivaldi’s report identified three key skillsets CMOs must have to manage the levels of change being experienced today: Analytics acumen, collaborative mindset, and commercial instinct.
Partnerships are another important component of success across the organisation, particularly with the CIO, as is an ability to collaborate with and lead multi-disciplinary teams including technology, digital, social, CRM, sales operations and strategic talent.
Related: The changing role of the CMO
In addition, the report stated that CMOs must be able to shape the value chain, working with sales on increasing yield, utilise big data from social and multi-channel sources, and shift their thinking from pre-purchase messaging to customer experience design.
“When we asked about key qualities for a successful CMO, one answer that was striking was ‘courage’- courage to experiment, to take risks, to incubate and push boundaries,” the report authors added.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
