The document discusses how marketing functions are perceived within organizations and the expanding responsibilities of CMOs. It finds that while CMOs view marketing as more strategic, the perception of marketing as a strategic partner has declined in the past three years according to other heads of departments. Additionally, marketing functions that are seen as more strategic have a broader scope of responsibilities, with many CMOs now having lead responsibility for data as well. The document advocates for a digitally integrated, cross-functional marketing structure to future proof marketing teams.
2. Future proofing your marketing team
Insights from the 2017 Survey – how the marketing function is
perceived and the expanded remit of the CMO
Charley Stoney, Group Managing Director
8. Are you data ready?
37% of you have lead remit for data and it’s
increasing
9.
10. How is the marketing function perceived within your
organisation?
from 2016
11. Heads of/Director's view
59%
57%
51%
The perception of the Marketing function as a strategic
partner, although rated higher by CMO’s, has declined over
past 3 years
2015 20172016
12. Being a strategic function significantly increases the
broader, strategic remit of Marketing
+11
%
+15
%
+11
%
At Alternatives we are immersed in the daily lives of the Marketing, Digital & now Data community in Ireland across a vast range of industry sectors, so naturally we’re at the forefront of talent trends & new skill sets required. The theme of today’s conference, The Evolving Role of the CMO, is something we have been discussing with you all for some years now as we have first hand knowledge of the changes taking place across your organisations.
I’m going to share with you my own view of the Evolved Marketing remit as well as the related insights from our Survey. Our 2017 Survey, the 4th undertaken in collaboration with the Marketing Society, was completed by 1200 practitioners from the marketing, digital & data community. Nearly two thirds of respondents were at managerial level or above - 350 were at the Director or Head of level.
As I’m only focusing on the results as they relate to today’s theme, please do download the full survey from our website when you have a moment as you will not only be able to benchmark your salaries but it will give you a great sense of customer & employee sentiment, trading expectations, engagement levels, the gender dimension and generally what makes us all get out of bed in the morning to go to work!
So the phrase Mad Men to Math Men has been used to describe the evolving role of our community over the past 10-15 years.
It’s not half as catchy but I prefer “Mad Men to Mad Math Men & Women” as I think it more aptly describes the way traditional methods of marketing communications have been turned upside down.
The shift in thinking and process within the marketing function has been transformational over the past 20 years or so.
Digital is dead, long live Digital…. The Digital Marketing label –indeed the digital label- is slowly disappearing; now we simply do business in a digital world and expect everyone to be up to speed.
Because it’s not just a marketing channel-it’s a business enabler, prod dev opp, data capture point etc.
That said, the lead remit still sits with you in the marketing dept. And collaboration is critical as responsibility for digital lies in several functions in 18% of cases and in 13% as a stand alone dept.
Despite wanting digital to be integrated into the total business, to future proof our businesses, it still requires experts to upskill the organisation and to drive all elements.
The biggest demand we see is for heads of digital, digital transformation experts. Specialists with specific skills in PPC, social media and content in particular.
In addition, every marketer needs digital skills, and we know of one client who got their total marketing department to do a digital diploma.
But also emphasis on soft skills such as ability to collaborate, to adapt to change in agile environments, to be a critical and innovative thinker.
So this slide shows you the % of respondents who believe that Marketing takes the lead across the disciplines that fall outside the traditional marketing function.
While three-quarters of you have the lead remit for Digital comms and strategy, far less have a lead in the other digital areas such as e-commerce, digital customer experience etc.
While still only 37% of our survey respondents take the lead for Data Analytics Data Analytics is a Key theme for CMO’s.
Amazon are seen as the global leaders in this areas and closer to home, online retailers like Shop Direct & Lifestyle are fine-tuning their customer analytics skills. Not to mention Telco & Financial Services organisations here with huge data analytics teams.
We are seeing a host of the hybrid roles come into play here, particularly the combination of data science with insight capabilities to provide organisations with ACTIONABLE data.
Also, given the pervasiveness and cross functional nature of data you will require people with communications and EQ skills to get things done.
We are also now seeing the demand for data hygienists- who cleanse data. With GDPR this is critical and this will be a key focus of CMO’s in 2018.
9
And right now only 43% of our respondents feel that marketing is perceived to play a strategic, revenue driving role in their org
And this is even more concerning as it represents your view – the Directors/CMOs and Head of Marketing.
Why is this?
If you are to have a voice on the board this has to change and as CMO it is your responsibility to drive that change.
And this is a concerning picture for you as CMO’s, who as we know, fight every day to have that voice on the board.
And you can see how important having that voice on the board is when you compare respondents where marketing is perceived as a strategic player (in yellow) and all respondents (in blue).
You can see here the impact on where you can play a lead role is considerable.
Particularly in Business Strategy, Proposition Development & Customer Experience.
So when it comes to future proofing there is no perfect solution other than to assume that it will keep changing at an extraordinary pace.
And future proofing marketing is not just about outputs for the business – it’s about how it can fundamentally impact the wider business, drive innovation and profitability – and therefore how you can claim that Voice on the Board.
Of course you will need the team with the latest skillsets but CRITICALLY you will also need to leverage them more effectively across the WHOLE business once in place.
More than ever, collaboration is becoming a central part of how we get things done.
Collaboration is the way in which consumers now behave online (and offline) and as the Voice of the Customer, we need to drive that behaviour within organisations – even if from behind and by stealth.
No longer can we work as silo’d functions across organisations as we are so co-dependent upon every other discipline across the business.
So those in your team who are agile thinkers, comfortable with change, great communicators and negotiators and have high EQ are the people who will have you navigate through.
And combined with these change and culture/engagement skills are the analytics and metrics to prove impact and effectiveness at Board level…
So in designing a structure around your Marketing function, it’s become less about putting people in boxes and more about how they interact with each other and those outside of the function to ensure that everyone is working collaboratively.
Now, it is becomingly increasingly common to have less hierarchy and
less clearly defined boundaries across marketing roles.
A matrix (dotted line management structure) to encourage
maximum collaboration and one that, in turn, reflects the customer
journey is increasingly common. A matrix organisation is particularly
applicable to global organisations who pull expertise from their international counterparts but also for large Irish companies with multiple functions involved in the customer journey, involved in the customer journey, such as banks, utilities & telcos.
A digitally integrated marketing team is assume in this example which roughly reflects some work I did recently with one of our key clients.
As a CMO you are a key strategic influencer. You have enormous amounts of insights, data, analytics and the skill sets within your teams to drive your business.
And the work you were doing 10 years ago is still highly relevant, you are just now required to be much more collaborative as the complexity of doing business requires the expertise of so many functions.
Future proofing your marketing team is all about leveraging the assets you have and ensuring that you have a strong voice in your organisation.
Through collaboration and influence you can do this overtly or by stealth even in organisations that don’t traditionally embrace marketing as a revenue driver.
But do remember that now more than ever you have to act now to take advantage of the expanded remit you are embracing.