Why CMOs Struggle for Influence

The Merry Meanderings of Marcom

Published articles and papers suggest that as the global economy drags itself out of the doldrums, the pitched battle between yesterday's generation of financial engineers and the new generation of marketplace-driven marketing engineers is heating up.

Advertising and marketing communications (fondly referred to as Marcom) strategies are getting caught in the crossfire. As we sort out fantasy from reality in the business world, it's no wonder that the cable show MadMen is such a poplular hit. It's hard to believe what went on in previous eras sometimes.

And the ad business is struggling mightily to sort out its future in a Digital 2.0 world. Maybe it's worth remembering one critical Marketing basic: Brands build sustainable, long-term equity by acutally delivering meaningful value to end consumers, not by creating clever illusions of value.

Creative ads for strawberry flavored mouthwash might have once been seen as good marketing; I certainly hope those days are over. And while much-hyped Superbowl ads are fun to watch,  robust businesses they do not create single handedly. Lead is best used as a verb when referring to market position; the hard work of block-and-tackle marketing is where the real action is.

But it's also worth remembering: Advertising's role is to communicate value propositions, not substitute for them.

CMO Tenures Highlight Marketing Under Assault

Fast Company (via WSJ, 5/16/07 page B17)
May 15, 2007, 3:50 pm
Memo to Marketing Chiefs: Watch Your Backs

Chief marketing officers serve many roles, but scapegoat might be the most familiar, says Ellen McGirt in Fast Company’s June issue (no link available). The past 12 months have seen such departures of marketing heads at big consumer companies as Javier Benito from Starwood Hotels, Michael Linton’s from Best Buy or Mary Minnick’s from Coca-Cola. They all have their own stories, but a survey by executive-search firm SpencerStuart shows that at 100 leading consumer-branded firms over the past three years, CMOs have held their jobs for 23 months on average, compared with 54 months for CEOs. In the food industry, the average CMO stint is about a year.

One danger to marketing chiefs is their wide span of responsibilities. Problems in finance, manufacturing and customer service can trip them up as much as issues with advertising and promotional campaigns. Plus, everyone has an opinion on marketing. “People will come up to you and say anything, like, ‘Your advertising blows’,” says Mr. Linton, now a senior vice president at eBay. “No one comes up to the [chief information officer] and says, ‘Hey, I was just thinking about your data architecture and how much better things are somewhere else.”
CMOs also seem more easily expendable in moments when someone needs to take the fall for a slump: “Getting rid of the CFO might spook Wall Street, while changing a COO or a CIO could disrupt operations.”

The truth is, however, that ditching the CMO can be just as unsettling, says Ms. McGirt. A revolving door at the top can harm a marketing department’s efficiency as it would any other, especially since “the new CMO [usually] gets rid of everything the previous guy championed,” Katherine Stone, who survived five CMOs during her seven years in Coca-Cola’s marketing department, complained on an industry blog.

To slow CMO turnover, chief executives could do more to give CMOs clearer goals. Russell Klein says he has lasted four years as Burger King’s CMO because he has been given the power to have a say in behind-the-scenes operations that might affect his marketing campaigns, such as supply-chain operations. Still, he adds, “clearly there is no better tonic than top-line sales.”–

Robin Moroney