The role of a chief marketing officer is seemingly ever-changing in the fast-paced, customer-focused loyalty industry. What’s more, the CMO is often required to wear several hats in a highly pressurized position. So what separates the good CMOs from the bad ones?
“You need a degree of humility to see where your relative strengths are and where outside resources can help you get the right answers,” says Graham Hales, Global CMO for Interbrand. Hales, who is based in London, was recently named Interbrand’s Global CMO after serving as CEO of Interbrand London.
“It’s quite arrogant for someone to think they have the best knowledge in every role that falls under a CMO’s title,” Hales says. “You have to recognize skills in other people and blend the right team around them.”
For Hales, his new role has a starting point of “looking after the Interbrand brand.”
Regarding challenges that keep Hales up at night?
“Marketing has gotten increasingly complicated over the past few years,” he says. “We have to engage in such a variety of touch points, and we have to understand how to get those different touch points together. The CMO has to have a perspective that works across the business, have respect from his financial colleagues, and understand how Big Data is affecting brands internally and externally.”
The diversity of skills required for a CMO is considerable, Hales says.
“If you look at what a marketing department now has compared to 24 months ago, there is a whole slew of new job titles,” he says. “It’s interesting because there are opportunities and challenges attached to that. In reality, we’re still maturing in terms of what works as far as best influence on the market place within the confines of the amount of change we’re seeing coming down the line.”
The speed of change makes longer term planning more difficult, Hales says.
“Some brands are their harshest critics,” he says. “Brands need to be realistic and objective with the right measures around that. Customers are a partner of your business. If they’re not on your side, you won’t have a business in the longer term.”
The best thing marketers can do is get an intuitive understanding of their customers, Hales says, gleaning from that real knowledge and insight so they feel comfortable making larger leaps.
“It’s not just about the economic value, but also about how the brand accrues its value so you know what to do more of, and what to do less of,” Hales says.
Having a clear understanding of your brand is vital for marketers, Hales says.
“And understanding how to bring that brand to life inside and outside the organization so you’re using your touch points effectively,” he says. “Understanding the effect of digital within your market place and finding optimal answers in your market place.”
There is no more purchase tunnels or linear consumer behavior, Hales says.
“We have to recognize that the consumer is more chaotic these days,” he says. “Understand them as best you can and a degree of transparency is critical. Those are challenges that successful marketers must digest.”