The Changing Marketing Order

“The CMO has to think about not just what the company says, but also about how the company behaves. Once that realisation sinks in, then you run into the wall of technology,” Gaston Legorburu, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Sapient Nitro and co-author of the bestseller “Storyscaping — stop creating ads, start creating worlds” told cat.a.lyst during an interview earlier this year. Legorburu was talking about the increasing sphere of influence of the CMO in today’s world of business.

Leading academicians and senior marketing professionals that cat.a.lyst spoke to were unanimous in agreement that the role of the CMO has undergone a major transformation. In fact, journals like the Harvard Business Review call it “The Rebirth of the CMO”. So, what exactly has changed?

The circle keeps growing Siddharth Singh of the Indian School of Business (ISB) says the sphere of influence of the CMO has increased over time, along with the complexity of the responsibility. He says, “As always, customers still purchase based on the value they obtain. Therefore, customer need and behaviour remain critical in developing superior value proposition. However, the elements of the marketing mix used to deliver value have become immensely more complex.”

The Indian context has seen some radical changes in the marketing environment, as Ramesh Kumar S, Professor of marketing, IIM-Bangalore, points out. “Consumers nowadays are far more knowledgeable and have far less patience; they are cash-rich and time-poor and have also travelled extensively across the world,” Samar Singh Sheikhawat, VP Marketing, United Breweries (UBL), sums up the scenario.

And how exactly are companies reacting to this? On the one hand, while more and more companies are looking actively at digital initiatives, thanks to the exponential growth of e-commerce, on another front they are continuing to carry the traditional baggage — this is the way we do things here — from the past. Hence, Ramesh Kumar of IIM Bangalore says that, “Going by the traditional ways in which marketing functions have been handled by a wide variety of organisations, the full scope of holistic marketing, which needs to be the sphere of influence associated with a CMO, is yet to be realised.”

Sheikhawat says, “The CMO’s role is a far more complex one today, largely due to the changing consumer behaviour.” Additionally, the legal and regulatory environment as well as the competitive environment is much tougher for brands. To top that, there is also a huge proliferation of media options.

Singh of ISB adds that increasing competition and decreasing product lifecycles have made development of new differentiated offerings that resonate with customers more challenging. The internet has created new ways of distribution and managing the increasing complexity of the distribution channel is a perpetual challenge. Similarly, the other elements of the marketing, promotion and price, have also become more complex and difficult to manage.

All these factors are pushing the CMO to learn new tricks. In organisations where that realisation has dawned, CMOs are being stretched to assume a role whose scope is much wider than just marketing. “A CMO has to be able to take on multiple roles to be able to provide integrated solutions to address business needs,” says Deepali Naair, CMO, Mahindra Holidays.

Tools for the trade Ramesh Kumar adds that to tackle future demands effectively, a CMO should have the ability to foresee inflection points in consumption, provide a clear strategic shift whenever required, have the ability to use the accumulated marketing knowledge and have a roadmap with contemporary initiatives that enables other functional areas to synergise with marketing. “A CMO needs to be not only an adept marketer but also a catalyst within the organisation to ensure that the organisation is able to respond to the rapid changes in the environment. More than anything else, an organisation should be receptive to the culture of being led by a CMO as a part of the top management,” he says.

The significant point of reference where the CMO’s job differs from what they would have done 10 years back is in engaging with technology. At present, marketers like Naair consider it as one of the most important areas where the CMO needs to be comfortable. “Given the current scenario where customers have a high digital and social quotient and are using technology to consume content in every sphere, one of the key success factors is that the CMO has to be a marketing technologist,” she says.

Understanding of technology is a key requirement because the CMO will then be better equipped to explain future technological requirements to the technology partner. At present, most CMOs pick from the basket offered by technology vendors or depend on what the board recommends. Naair adds: “Similarly, you also need CIOs who see development of technology infrastructure as a part of providing business solutions and partner the CMO in understanding the needs of customers.”

Sheikhawat feels that today’s CMO is a researcher, a marketer, a sales person, a business manager, a consumer psychologist — all rolled into one.

He needs to have a sound knowledge of the regulatory and statutory framework and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well. The biggest challenge for a CMO is to successfully juggle multiple roles — with equal panache. Additionally, with the advent of social media, time response to consumers has dramatically reduced. He says “One needs to constantly innovate and experiment with new techniques to satisfy the consumer, who is the ultimate focus of all marketing strategies.”

As much time as a heartbeat He adds that time is of primary essence for the current generation and one needs to strategically leverage technology to get information and deliver results in a heartbeat. “Another important facet that many brands often overlook is the importance of having a consistent long-term brand strategy. It is imperative to identify your brand’s position in the global marketing realm and target the correct audience effectively.”

Prof Pradeep K. Chintagunta, Professor of Marketing, Chicago Booth School of Business, gives a clarion call to eliminate siloed existence (read his analysis of the situation in the article below). “While it might be hard to do, bringing in insights from other disciplines and functions could lead to insights that might have been difficult to identify otherwise,” he says. For those who believed that marketers have a ball of a time, there is clearly a lot of hard work that precedes the party.

COMMENT NOW