Page 40 - Marketing Management

DEFINING MARKETING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY | CHAPTER 1 17

THE NEW CMO The rapidly changing marketing environment is putting even greater
demands on marketing executives. A well-publicized survey revealed that the average CMO tenure
at U.S. companies is about 28 months, well below the average tenure of CEOs (54 months) or other
C-level positions. One explanation is that the role of marketing—and thus management
expectations—varies widely among firms. Harvard’s Gail McGovern and John Quelch find
tremendous variability in CMO responsibilities and job descriptions. 35
Another challenge CMOs face is that the success factors for top marketers are many and varied.
CMOs must have strong quantitative skills but also well-honed qualitative skills; they must have an
independent, entrepreneurial attitude but also work in close harmony with other departments such
as sales; and they must capture the “voice” and point of view of consumers yet have a keen bottom-
36
line understanding of how marketing creates value within their organization. One survey asked
200 senior-level marketing executives which innate and learned qualities were most important;
here are their answers: 37

• Innate Qualities • Learned Qualities
• Risk taker • Global experience
• Willingness to make decisions • Multichannel expertise
• Problem-solving ability • Cross-industry experience
• Change agent • Digital focus
• Results-oriented • Operational knowledge

Perhaps the most important role for any CMO is to infuse a customer perspective and orienta-
tion in business decisions affecting any customer touch point (where a customer directly or indi-
rectly interacts with the company in some form). The CMO of lodging franchisor Choice Hotels
International, Chris Malone, is responsible for directing virtually all customer-facing efforts for the
firm, including: 38
• Advertising, loyalty programs, and direct response;
• Guiding the company’s central reservations systems, including its call centers, Web site, and
relationships with outside travel vendors such as Travelocity and Orbitz; and
• Heading up the company’s global group sales efforts with organizations such as AAA, AARP,
and professional sports teams.

MARKETING IN THE ORGANIZATION Although an effective CMO is crucial,
increasingly marketing is not done only by the marketing department. Because marketing must
affect every aspect of the customer experience, marketers must properly manage all possible touch
points—store layouts, package designs, product functions, employee training, and shipping and
logistics methods. Marketing must also be influential in key general management activities, such as
product innovation and new-business development. To create a strong marketing organization,
marketers must think like executives in other departments, and executives in other departments
must think more like marketers. 39
As the late David Packard of Hewlett-Packard observed,“Marketing is far too important to leave
to the marketing department.” Companies now know that every employee has an impact on the
customer and must see the customer as the source of the company’s prosperity. So they’re begin-
ning to emphasize interdepartmental teamwork to manage key processes. They’re emphasizing the
smooth management of core business processes, such as new-product realization, customer acqui-
sition and retention, and order fulfillment.

Company Orientation Toward

the Marketplace

Given these new marketing realities, what philosophy should guide a company’s marketing efforts?
Increasingly, marketers operate consistent with the holistic marketing concept. Let’s first review the
evolution of earlier marketing ideas.