What are CMOs thinking? III

The pressure is on.

In an article in Advertising Age, “Why CMOs Are Gaining Ground in the Recession,” John Quelch, Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, listed the four mainmarketing challenges chief marketing officers (CMOs) currently face: Shifting consumer behavio, Price positioning, Stretching marketing dollars, Embracing digital

Following last week’s article, What Are CMOs Thinking?, here are the results of yet another report documenting the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors of CMOs in tough economic conditions.

Fielded late last year, “Isolating the Marketing DNA: The Essential Skills and Qualities of the New CMO,” fromSpencerStuart, delved into CMOs’ operational concerns.

When asked what attributes were needed to make a CMO successful, 65% replied the ability to impact bottom-line results.

But when asked what a CMO must “own” to be successful, 92% of the executives answered the brand.

The disconnect between the leading answers to the two questions is somewhat surprising, because often branding and bottom-line results are considered if not antithetical, at least rarely allied.

Unsurprisingly, when it came to what a CMO’s effectiveness should be measured against, following alignment with business strategy were profitability and revenues.

It is a complex job, with many pressures, but in the current economic environment CMOs have to be concerned with making money for their organizations.

Yet, as the SpencerStuart report cautioned, “Marketing can help by encouraging the organization to be counterintuitive in a time of financial crisis; rather than scaling back, companies can invest in the areas that will benefit customers.”

And that can mean…spending money.

What Are CMOs Thinking? II

“How the heck can we…”

CMOs are facing tough job in current downturn, coz they are to keep products moving—even in an economy where practically nothing is moving.

To find out how top marketing officers around the country are dealing with adverse economic conditions, Duke University’sFuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA) conducted the “CMO Survey” in February, a poll of nearly 600 US marketing executives.

The survey found that 59% of marketers were less optimistic about the economy than they had been one quarter before. Amazingly, though, that is better than when the survey was conducted in August 2008. Then, 77% of respondents were less optimistic.

When the CMOs were asked about the first customer priority for the next 12 months, price dominated.

The marketers expect marketing spending to remain almost flat this year, growing by only 0.5% over the next 12 months. But where they are spending their limited marketing dollars is changing.

They anticipate a more than 7% decrease in traditional advertising and increases of about 10% in both Internet marketing and new product introductions.

CMOs are turning to new and often unproven strategies that focus on the Internet, partnerships, new markets, and new products and services to keep their companies moving forward. 

What CMOs are thinking?

A 2 years ago study, and now we can have more insight about it. 

2007 McKinsey study of 410 marketing execs found 
the primary barriers to online investment were: 
52% insufficient metrics to measure impact 
41% Insufficient in-house capabilities 
33% Difficulty of convincing upper management 
24% Limited reach of digital tools 
18% insufficient capabilities at agency