CMO Action to Spark a Growth Reaction

A new 2018 initiative by the CMO Council and Deloitte is aimed at empowering both newly appointed and established CMOs with a growth-driver playbook based on peer-powered insights from CMOs in growth brands. It also looks to establish guidelines for benchmarking current revenue sources and identify gaps, opportunity areas, conversion/retention problems, yield inhibitors and underperforming or under-utilized assets.

Executive sprawl and the proliferation of C-level titles across multiplying turfs and subdivisions of responsibility—including chiefs of revenue, digital, data, customer experience, relationships, insights and innovation—are often challenging CMOs to consolidate authority and assert ownership of these critical roles in their organizations. Many are collaborating at unprecedented levels with CEOs, boards, CFOs, CIOs and COOs, as well as establishing themselves as revenue drivers, market experts, customer experience custodians and well-informed strategists.

Not surprisingly, expectations are rising for CMOs to impact business performance. This often means using new techniques, talents and technologies to drive growth, realize better returns and build more profitable customer relationships, valued products and productive partnerships.

While they have high aspirations in this area, many CMOs surveyed in a 2016 research initiative undertaken by the CMO Council and Deloitte (titled “The CMO Shift to Gaining Business Lift”) appear to be struggling in their pursuit of revenue, better returns, and more profitable and enduring customer relationships. Respondents also noted that they are less involved in the development of new products, markets, customer experiences and business conversions. When asked where they spend their time or what methods they are using to drive revenue and improve margin, few senior marketers surveyed appear to be focusing on growth driving activities.

When asked where CMOs played a key role in strategic planning and business development, about half of respondents felt their key role was to develop corporate vision and direction, as well as lead change management and digital business transformation. However, their desire to be involved in long-term, large-scale initiatives was in sharp contrast to their level of participation in more short-term, revenue-generating tasks, such as mapping cross-border geo-expansion, furthering distribution and channel development, and leading derivative product innovation.

A new 2018 initiative by the CMO Council and Deloitte is aimed at empowering both newly appointed and established CMOs with a growth-driver playbook based on peer-powered insights from CMOs in growth brands. It also looks to establish guidelines for benchmarking current revenue sources and identify gaps, opportunity areas, conversion/retention problems, yield inhibitors and underperforming or under-utilized assets.

The goal for the initiative will be to provide chief marketers with leading-practice approaches to achieving more cost-effective growth, customer revenue optimization, market share gain, margin uplift, product portfolio expansion, sales and channel performance improvement, and brand equity uplift.