The New Age CMO – Changing Beyond Recognition

CMO

Not surprisingly, the traditional role of a Chief marketing Officer is no longer confined merely to marketing.

This, largely because marketing has changed unrecognizably over the years, and will change even more over the next few years. As marketing becomes increasingly digitized, CMOs need to become Digital Transformation leaders for the market facing teams. Their role, which once involved flamboyance representation of the brand image- super cool and completely comfortable in the driving seat- has now changed to a communications technology strategist. They need a two-pronged focus- optimizing efficiency and adopting advanced technologies for doing so— factors named as a part of the top three priorities this year by Forbes Insights.

The CMO traditionally handled brand management, advertising, and market research, sometimes with panache by very often in “brainstorming’- lead chaotic ideas, which finally fell into place. The CMO was a creative person- with loads of disruptive ideas, smart one-liners to motivate a team of very productive marketing experts. He or she was most often lead by the management principle of marketing- a subject lovingly studied for decades as an academic pursuit- and which has now largely become irrelevant.

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Digitalization of all processes is the culprit here- or one may say it a blessing in disguise. As technology took over Mad Men like environments in marketing departments, data became everybody’s Holy Grail. Precise activities with measurable impact are now more effective and potentially explosive to the markets.

Everything changed about five years ago, when digital transformation hit the industry. It was no longer merely about selling, it was now about creating a demand- based on the humungous data that companies had at their disposal. CMOs now had to become experts at strategizing based on analytics.

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Analytics is today viewed as one of the foundational elements of a marketing strategy. The CMO needs to  think and deliver a few steps ahead- creating the right experiences- to get the right focus- to be able to collate the right data and finally- to connect with the right customer in the right way.

Sounds unfair? However, it’s true- the CMO is fast becoming a creative form of a CIO. Their creativity will drive business, but with the aid of technology.

A bit of both? Strategy with a creative streak, or business with a technology drive!

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