|
| Recent
Articles |
Ad-Tech Panel Preview: Inside The Art Of Brand...
I will be leading a fantastic panel of social media personalities talking about the art of creating and fostering a brand personality through social media. As I have shared before, I am extremely excited about this...
Starbucks And Conversational Marketing
This seems like an almost trivial thing to write about, but lately it's been discussed in one of the major search marketing blogs: SEO Book. If you've been to...
Are You Targeting Your Best Customers?
So much otherwise good marketing is misdirected at the wrong customers. "Free shipping" is a great offer for someone almost ready to buy who needs just one more reason to do it now, but it won't move someone who...
Brands And Community
Brands love community. But do they know what it is? The growth of social networks has forced marketeers to view their consumers differently. Instead of seeing them...
Simple Question: Who Else Can Win?
I've been writing about companies who are committed to making a difference. I think the issue boils down to a very simple question: "Who else can win?" The primary focus has always been on how companies make money...
Branding: Words And Meanings
I've been thinking about brands that are making a difference in our lives and society, and I used the term "worthwhile brand" to define them. However, I don't think that term sets the bar high enough; as one reader...
|
| Recent WebProNews Articles |
Don't Trick The Google Ad Click
Placing Google AdSense units and navigation elements on a website can be accomplished without leading to accidental clicks. Webmasters should beware of doing otherwise. The many ways webmasters can arrange...
SEW Live Recap: This Is Getting Personal
At the end of the day, it's about sales, not traffic. And if it's about sales, then it must also be about people, not clicks. This seemed to be the focus of yesterday's...
NY Board Seeks Google DoubleClick Delay
Concerns about privacy have prompted the New York State Consumer Protection Board to ask the Federal Trade Commission for a delay in approving Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick. Hooking up Google's...
New York Times Third Best At "Sex"?
If you were, by some chance, to search for “sex” on Google, what sort of sites would you expect to see? Perhaps we shouldn’t give explicit examples, but a...
Parents Obsessed With Google Baby Names
Have we really reached a point where people are going to worry about how and where their progeny's names appear in Google's search results? Parental competitiveness has always been with a lot of people. Whether they...
Mom's Guide To Social Marketing
Your mother, if she did her job right, taught you everything you need to know about how to get along in the world and how to get ahead in it. When we were...
Google Finance Cashes In Updates
Some new features arrived in Google's Finance site, with the big addition being content from events like earnings announcements and analyst calls. Ever since Google Finance launched, it has been compared regularly...
|
|
05.11.07
CMO Or VP Of Marketing?
 By
Jon Miller
What's the fundamental difference between a Chief Marketing Officer and a VP of Marketing?
It's not a question of experience or organizational size, and it doesn't matter what your business card says (mine says VP Marketing). It's a question of how you act, the extent and scope of your responsibility, and how you are perceived by the organization.
According to the recent CMO Council report, Define & Align the CMO, the most successful CMOs bring a strategic long-term view, exceptional measurement and analytical capabilities, and financial management rigor to their role. These business leaders earn their seat at the revenue table and the respect of fellow C-level executives and board members.
Other senior marketing executives may excel at their function, with great experience building brands and executing programs. But without the skills to provide strategic and financial leadership to the organization, these executives do not deserve a C-level title. VP/SVP of Marketing describes their role just fine.
So, the question is which are you: a CMO or a VP of Marketing?
A Short History of the CMO
The CMO title was originally created by self-described "super-star" marketers who were good at marketing the job of Marketing and themselves, but not at driving revenue or demonstrating results. In a classic example of the Peter Principle (the tendency to rise to one's level of incompetence), executives and recruiters sought out the marketers who were best at "traditional" marketing functions such as brand development and tactical program execution and elevated them to CMO.
However, according to the CMO Council, the hiring criteria for these CMO roles did also not include things like "business strategy, vision and corporate direction", "budgeting and accountability of spend with CFO" or "sales, marketing and channel integration". In other words, they were hired to be VPs of Marketing, not Chief Marketing Officers.
As a result, these CMOs were ill-prepared to operate at the same level as other C-level executives. They were used to operating tactically, not strategically. They were used to using soft marketing metrics such as brand awareness, not hard financial metrics like revenue and cash flow. The result was CMOs who lacked credibility, authority, or clout in the organization - leading to failure, short tenures, and high turnover.
The Modern CMO
To be successful, the CMO must play a role broader than just leading the marketing organization. The role must include driving revenue, leading innovation, and providing strategic vision. These growth champions must lead all four Ps - not just promotion but also product strategy, place (channel and distribution), and pricing.
Like other C-level executives, these CMOs must be rigorous in their financial planning and metrics, making revenue forecasts and justifying their budgets like the investment in the future that marketing spending really is.
| Chief Marketing Officer | VP Marketing | | Strategic mindset that adds value to the C-suite | Executes tactical marketing programs | | Key skills: Financial acumen, strong business intellect, measurement and ROI | Key skills: Marketing experience, branding, awareness | | Measurable results, hard metrics like revenue | Soft metrics and measurements | | Marketing is seen as a source of revenue | Marketing seen as a cost center | | Partner to sales (single revenue pipeline) | Subservient to sales | | Contributes to product direction and strategy | Given final product and told to figure out how to market it | | Board-level interactions | Little to no board-level interaction | | Business leader | Marketing leader |
Quant Jocks and Geeks?
Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge (co-sponsor of the CMO Council Study), shared additional findings about the modern CMO in a recent article in AdWeek:
So how do CMOs gain cred? Not by touting taglines but by crunching numbers, becoming "quant jocks" in the model established by CMOs at CapitalOne and Dell, then proving to their boards that their marketing is working, said Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge, Bethesda, Md.
CMOs with greater quantitative focus and measurement emphasis have a significantly longer expected tenure, "greater than 20 percent longer," said Furey.
"The age of the rock-star CMO is going away," said Furey. "We're going into the era of the geek. Or, to put it another way, if you're going to be the rock star, you'd better get some really good roadies working for you."
…CMOs with agency backgrounds are being replaced by those with a broader career experience across several disciplines, "particularly sales management, product management, and in some cases even financial analysis."
Conclusion
It's never been harder to be a CMO, but it's also never been as exciting. Today's CMO is faced with the imperative to be accountable for driving revenue, the pressures of new and rapidly changing marketing tactics, and the need to build quantitative and analytics skills. At the same time, the modern CMO is finally beginning to earn the respect of the organization and a seat at the revenue table as a peer to fellow C-level executives.
So, the question remains, which are you: a CMO or a VP of Marketing?
Comments
About the Author:
Jon has over 11 years of experience helping marketers with innovative technology solutions. He is current VP Marketing and co-founder of Marketo, a provider of easy to use on-demand marketing automation solutions that help B2B marketers drive and track revenue. Before co-founding Marketo, Jon was a vice president at Epiphany, where since 1999 he led overall product strategy and direction for Epiphany's industry leading marketing automation applications. He has also worked as a CRM strategist at Exchange Partners and as a strategic consultant for Gemini Consulting. Jon graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics from Harvard College and has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
|
|
