Most Important Factors in CMO Success

The article Six Questions That Can Improve CMO Job Security from BusinessWeek discusses the most important factors that determine success of an executive in a CMO role.

Here are Pete Krainik’s top 6 factors from the article:

1. The CMO and board must be in sync.
2. The CMO needs the authority to lead change.
3. The degree of customer centricity at the company.
4. How well the CEO and board understand marketing.
5. The level of influence the CMO has in the company.
6. The marketing budget and how it is determined.

The author described factors that the CMO doesn’t have much control over. Are there certain factors that the CMO can control to be successful in the CMO role at a company? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The Recession May Make CMOs More Numbers Driven

John Quelch wrote a thought provoking article (How CMOs Should Function in a Recession) which touches on how the recession can alter the role of the CMO in an organization. Not only do they have to come up with creative ways to stretch marketing spend further but they have to be more cognizant of the return on investment on marketing spend.

The recession will have two important, lasting results for CMOs: First, financial accountability of marketing is here to stay. Only in a few high-margin fashion-intensive categories will the shoot-from-the-hip right brain marketer survive. Second, improved accountability requires CMOs to be financially literate, to understand the balance sheet as well as the income statement impacts of marketing initiatives. The result will be a new generation of CMOs who command more respect in the C-suite and hold their jobs longer as a result.

If Quelch is right, successful CMOs in the future may require an analytical skillset that outweighs the creative skillset. In the classic debate of whether marketing is an art or science, this may give the science side the lead for now. The recent Stephen Baker book, The Numerati, describes how business is becoming more analytically driven as artificial computer intelligence is able to give marketers new insights into the behavior patterns of consumers, connecting the dots when human intuition comes up short. For example a computer sorting mountains of information from consumers online, found that Netflix users who rent romatic comedies are more likely to rent cars for the weekend. A data analysis also found that drinkers of hard liqour drinkers often buy Gatorade. These consumers likely wanted to prevent hang overs by drinking or mixing liqour with the electrolyte rich sports drink. This information could be valuable for Gatorade’s marketing department who could use this to target liqour buyers to increase sales.

Have you seen any examples of numbers becoming more important in the role of a CMO or marketing department?