Thoughts from Forbes CMO Summit

Written by Rishad Tobaccowala November 05, 2009

 

 

Recently, I had the opportunity to join in a conversation with top marketing executives from companies such as Bank of America, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Mercedes-Benz USA and Xerox at the 5th annual Forbes CMO Summit in Palm Beach, FL. The topic of discussion was “Preparing for Growth,” and how companies can work to rebuild their brands and boost sales as the economy begins to stabilize and grow.

I broke my presentation into 4 parts: Observations, Predictions, Challenges, and Suggestions. I’ve outlined them below.

OBSERVATIONS

Marketers Need to Take STD Action
We are living in a time of STD – S= Seminal, T= Transformative and D= Disruptive. To survive in this industry, we need think seminally, be willing to disrupt and deliver transformative solutions in a world of constant change.

Consumers are God
Consumers are now in control. We need to understand and meet their requirements to be successful. Doing so successfully will require a marketing renaissance of skills and inspiration. This asymmetric warfare, or fact that consumers have supreme power of marketers, will continue as the web and rise of applications have given individuals greater power and information.

We Live in a Post-digital Age
The idea of “digital” dominates marketing conversations, as it should. However, people live in both worlds: cyber and real space – their media spans digital and analog; we shop online and offline. Companies that connect the two will be successful, while those that focus on only one have failed to see the world as consumers naturally see it.

PREDICTIONS

Non-Working Costs Spend Will Rise
Working Media spending may have seen its peak in 2007/2008 as clients focused more on performance media, earned media and owned media. Great focus will be shifted to non-working costs – things such as time spent on developing experiences, technology, talent and experts. While total marketing spend will rise over the years with GDP, there will be a significant shift from "working" to what is considered "non-working."

Mathematics Will Be Our Guide
Mathematics will stop being a separate “country” for marketers. Marketing will certainly grow more analytical, but it will not be via machines or equations for decision-making. Rather, we will use data as a guide, not as a crutch.

CHALLENGES

The Future Doesn’t Fit in the Containers of the Past
Organizational structures of all incumbents are challenged since they were optimized for an analog-only world. The speed and ambiguity of the modern marketplace will require significant reorganization.

People are Analog
People are analog, even though the world is increasingly digital. True, the world is going digital but people are not capable of moving so fast. Unlike machines and codes, they have feelings. They are scared of change and worry about turf issues and the like. We need to acknowledge this and make sure appropriate training, incentives and risk management are built into the company.

We Are Optimizing for the Past
The economy has made it such that companies are now cutting back on budgets and staff, even though the amount of work and challenges are at an all time high. This barrier causes us to give up on things that will matter most in the future, leading to underinvestment and underdevelopment.

SUGGESTIONS:

Run a Schizophrenic Operation
Keep your company optimized for today with a group optimized for tomorrow. Fund and incentivize appropriately. Everyone reports to management, but let the group focused on tomorrow work against different objectives and metrics, rather than blending the two into a mediocre mess. Only the schizophrenic will survive.

Build A Culture that Matters
The most important word of mouth for a brand is not of your users, but of your employees and ex-employees. What they say matters the most because customers believe these folks are "in the know." Thus, managing a respectful, honest, innovative and transparent culture matters a great deal. The culture will exist regardless, so embracing it and managing for it will be a strong advantage.

Move from Marketing to Facilitation
Marketing has been outsourced to the end user (think about how you plan your own travel and investigate your own purchases). Let’s think of how to help facilitate self marketing. In fact, instead of being a Chief Marketing Officer, become a Chief Facilitation Officer.

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