The Time has Come for CMOs to Rethink Their Marketing Organization and Processes

While the title of this post implies an holistic connotation — and while I do believe that CMOs do need to rethink their marketing organizations and processes from an overall perspective, for the sake of this particular post we'll keep it in the context of leveraging new technology and marketing platforms.

Earlier this year, Oracle Marketing Cloud, in partnership with The CMO Club released the aptly titled The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms. In the Guide we identified 5 specific solutions to help CMOs meet the challenge of delivering a seamless positive customer experience across all touch points.

The goal was not to represent assumptive solutions to this specific challenge, but to share peer solutions that provide a collective perspective on how other CMOs are tackling this incredibly difficult topic, which we accomplished by conducting both quantitative and qualitative surveys of your fellow CMOs.

One of the 5 solutions identified was "Rethink Your Marketing Organization and Processes." Two key areas we focused on were skill sets and talent.

When it comes to skills, the creation of new cross-functional teams are a must.

We Kid You Not

One of the specific examples we showcase involved Cammie Dunaway, who is president and CMO of KidZania Inc.

In an effort to better understand the role of technology as it relates to the overall customer experience, she invited the CIO to join her at one of their properties.

Together they literally walked the floor and from there rolled up their sleeves to evaluate every aspect of the customer experience and identify how technology should not just deliver, but inspire their customers in new ways.

As a result:

• They instituted a routine cross-functional meeting with their teams to ensure they were staying on track and applying insights they gathered.
• They also set up a standing weekly one on one where they could connect on any issues the teams were having and align on new ideas and priorities.

​In terms of talent, it is becoming more and more mission critical to hire left-brain and right-brain talent. While marketing has long been the realm of creative campaign artists, AKA the right side, they must now share the stage with the left side - data scientists for example.

Mary Beth Parks, SVP Global Marketing of Hilton Worldwide says it’s very important to build marketing teams based on digital and technology capabilities and how skills sets align with overall marketing objectives and strategic priorities for the company.

"When we create that alignment, we enable results that can be truly transformative for our campaigns and the company.”

When the only constant is change, the new role of the CMO dictates the use of new technologies and marketing platforms to increase competitive advantage. There is an undeniable need for CMOs to be constantly vigilant when it comes to monitoring the technologies and platforms they utilize and depend on. The health of their brand demands it.

To learn more download The CMO Solution Guide to Leveraging New Technology and Marketing Platforms.