CMO murdered...or reborn?

How and why the CMO role is evolving - in name, in function, and in purpose

I hope you’re having a great Sunday, dear reader. Here’s your weekly showcase of news likely to impact you - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it.

📸 But first, flashback to last week when we discussed why banks need branches. This week Virgin Money announced it’s going to close almost a fifth of its 162 branches. Spurred on by the pandemic, their customers are moving to digital services.

👉🏻 Now, read on to learn why:

① The CMO is taking on ever broader responsibilities.

② Marketing’s 4Ps are being displaced by new priorities.

③ Being commercial and client-centric is the key.

④ The UK stock market depends on startups; yet

⑤ startups offering stock trading in Europe may well falter.

⑥ We need impartial journalism more than ever.

⑦ Great marketing demands creativity and data analysis.

What's new?

The Financial Brand published a piece this week asking why are so many banks killing the CMO role?

Source: Unsplash

① In short:

“Bank of America and Wells Fargo – two banks that both have more than $1 trillion in assets and operations that span multiple countries – made similar announcements this year that the CMO roles would be retired. Some argue that eliminating the CMO role and decentralizing marketing operations enables more efficiency and reflects a new way to reach potential customers.”
“Increasingly, chief marketing officers are being asked to move beyond being just brand ambassadors, and embrace responsibilities related to improving the entire customer experience. Bank CMOs are being asked by senior management more often to shift from their traditional focus on brand and marketing campaign management to growth and revenue generation.”
“An Ernst & Young report says the bank CMO of today must actually encompass five different roles in one: chief collaboration officer, customer experience officer, MarTech chief information officer, change leader and inventor.”

Why does it matter?

② Misleading headline aside, this article matters because (as Mastercard’s CMO confirms in Quotable below) marketing is in something of an existential crisis right now. It has had responsibilities taken away from it. In most companies, marketers are no longer in charge of products, pricing or place (i.e. distribution). That’s three out of four Ps by my count. What’s left? Well, on the other hand, marketing now demands a larger set of skills than ever before. The growing role of technology, the need to build communities and the importance of a consistent brand experience across all touch points - both digital and in real life, mean that good marketing has never been more complex to deliver.

CMOs aren’t being killed off but their roles are evolving, broadening and - if anything - becoming more critical than ever. And, in some organisations, that means splitting the CMO role across different people to ensure that each area is well covered.

The question then is: which organisational model is right for your firm and how to find the person or people to deliver on these new expectations?

What's next?

Take action

Is your head of marketing - whatever name you choose to assign the role - capable of delivering on the function’s expanded remit or would you be better off splitting up responsibilities and assigning them to different individuals? This will of course depend on your organisation, market and circumstances.

③ Broadly speaking, you need a team that can:

Be commercial: Marketing activity must be directly and prominently linked to corporate strategy - ultimately to revenue, profit and growth. The function must work hand in glove with Sales/Business Development. That’s the way you best support the business but also the credibility of the marketing function internally.
Be client-centric: It’s marketing’s job to be the voice of the customer throughout the organisation. From first contact to back-office reporting, they should be the guardians of the brand, ensuring customers have the same high-level of experience. But also putting clients at the heart of the marketing you do, making them the hero of your marketing. That means infusing your communications with empathy, simplicity, and humanity.
Build communities: Customers are loyal to a community more than a brand. Nowadays, the best brands are using a combination of digital and in-person experiences to offer their customers expertise, discussion and networking opportunities. Brands need to think like media companies. Doing this requires deep, data-driven understanding of clients’ views and priorities.

Get help

I’m looking for a full-time, in-house role but in the post-Covid age of depleted marketing budgets and remote teams with skills gaps, many organisations need marketing and communications support that’s agile, flexible, and risk free. That’s why I founded WhatsNext Partners.

Whether it be as a permanent member of your team or with on demand support, just hit ‘reply’ to let me know if you need my help.

Share

Can I ask you a favour, dear reader? If you found this post useful or know someone who would, please like, comment on, or - best of all - share it with your professional network. It really helps me to grow the readership.

What else?

Three other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

How to revive Britain’s stock market

④ Reviving the UK stock market depends on encouraging startups and internationalism.

Source: The Economist, 2 October 2021

“In 2006 the companies with shares listed in London were worth 10.4% of the global equity market. Today, that figure is 3.6%. London has lagged behind even the laggards: its share of Europe’s total market value has declined from 36% to 22% over the same period.”
“One reason for Britain’s abysmal bourse is the underperformance of large British firms. The City has also suffered as global firms with international capital-raising options have drifted off. And its final weakness is a dearth of startups that choose to list in London.”
“As well as deregulating corporate governance and allowing dual-class shares, the government should move ahead swiftly to make it easier for startups to hire talented foreigners and let graduates of leading universities move to Britain without a job offer.”

TECHNOLOGY

Inside the battle to be Europe’s Robinhood

⑤ A bevy of ambitious app-based startups want to offer stock trading in Europe despite fragmented markets, interest that trails far behind the US, and a much more challenging regulatory landscape.

Source: The Financial Times, 1 October 2021

“Startups offering cheap and user-friendly mobile apps for trading and investments are racing to build their presence across Europe in what they view as a fragmented and largely untapped market for people who want to buy and sell shares themselves.”
“The problem is that fewer Europeans actually trade shares. Despite a surge of stock trading during the pandemic and a push by EU authorities to encourage investing, the percentage of European household wealth held in equities and funds remained stuck at around 25 per cent over the decade after the financial crisis. More than half of Americans invest directly in the stock market.”
“But the startups face questions around whether the fad for retail investing will prove sustainable if markets start to falter, and have drawn a critical eye from regulators worried about the ‘gamification’ of trading and excessive risk taking by novice investors. The FCA has made it clear that it regards payment for order flow as incompatible with Mifid, the pan-European financial regulation.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Bloomberg, Reuters and the BBC unite

⑥ In a world dominated by social media, we need impartial journalism more than ever.

WMG: Imagine a World without Trusted Media.

“Some of the biggest names in global media have set aside their competitive rivalries to produce a short video communicating the essential role of trusted media brands in a chaotic world.”
“Bloomberg, Reuters, the BBC, Nat Geo and The Wall Street Journal display a united front against partisan influencers, prejudiced bloggers and skewed political messaging in a new global campaign from the World Media Group.”
“Reminding audiences that truth and the ability to question are the only way to hold power to account, the provocative piece contrasts the chaos of misinformation, propaganda and lies of unaccountable online sources with the skilled interviewers, reporters and editors who present the world as it is.”

Quotable

⑦ Mastercard chief marketer Raja Rajamannar who spoke with The Drum this week:

Raja Rajamannar. Source: The Drum, 27 September 2021

“The way we do marketing today will hopelessly fail in the imminent future. It’s already failing. […] The classical marketers are right-brained in their thinking and approach. Contemporary marketers are left-brain thinking. The successful marketer will integrate the power of both.”

One more thing...

Is it time to wave goodbye to the handshake at the office? The Economist thinks so.