CEOs' Heirs Apparent? Clearly, CMOs†

Handle the Brand, and You Can Handle the Top Post

Advertising Age, July 21, 2008 — In one of my earliest books, "Leveraging the Corporate Brand," I predicted the creation of "a new kind of senior officer, a CCO or chief communications officer," which inevitably gave way to the title chief marketing officer. I am now predicting a trend that will see the CMO inheriting the CEO post.

Stengel on Leadership, New Media and the Purpose Institute†

Q&A: P&G's Departing Global CMO Talks About His Legacy, His Future and What Changes, If Any, His Successor Has in Store

Advertising Age, July 21, 2008 — After seven years as perhaps the most visible, outspoken and successful Procter & Gamble Co. chief marketer in decades, Jim Stengel has announced he's leaving the post Aug. 1 and the company Oct. 31, after some special project work. In this interview with Advertising Age's Jack Neff, he discusses his legacy, what the transition to Marc Pritchard as global marketing officer means and whether he really does love the media as much as, say, Madonna does.

What's the CMO's Role in Innovation?†

The Marketing Chief Must Not Be Distracted From the Primary Tasks Related to Marketing Ongoing Businesses

Advertising Age, July 14, 2008 — It's well-accepted today that innovation is important throughout an entire enterprise. Even in the marketing arena, this has prompted an opening of floodgates to let in a slew of innovative ideas that go far beyond new products.

Spurred by everything from open innovation networks to cross-industry advisory boards to crowd sourcing, the deluge of ideas brings exciting potential for inspiring breakthrough concepts and for disruptive innovation. But with so many possibilities also comes the challenge of managing the exploding innovation process. Because of the critical role that marketing innovation plays in an organization's growth, the question that arises is: How involved should a CEO be and when should the responsibility lie mainly with the chief... continue reading

Cliche No More: CMO Club Gets Colorful New Member†

Unilever's Simon Clift on Stengel, Torture Tests and Marketing's Filet Mignon

Advertising Age, June 30, 2008 — Simon Clift has been Unilever's chief marketing officer for more than two years, but he freely admits he only really began doing the job a couple of months ago, thanks to a corporate restructuring that has had him drop his line-management duties as president of personal care.

As full-time CMO, Mr. Clift is getting in touch with his touch points, as some of his peers might say. But he just couldn't resist a mocking drift into CMO speak during an interview in the Carlton Hotel during the International Advertising Festival at Cannes last week as he bandied about terms like "challenges" and "new-media environment." He stopped, smirked and then added: "Oh my God! I've become a cliche."

CMOs, Stop Obsessing Over the Tenure Stat†

Instead, Here's What They Should Be Asking Themselves

Advertising Age, May 19, 2008 — Without question the marketing community has taken hold of the CMO-tenure statistic and run with it. Whether it's morbid fascination or the need to continually justify the role of the chief marketing officer, we simply need to move on.

Instead of framing their roles in terms of self-preservation, CMOs should be asking themselves: What is the proper role of marketing at my organization, and how can it be used to create as much value as possible?

What It Takes to Really Win Globally†

A Global Brand CEO Looks Beyond Typical Focus on Insights, Innovation and Communication

Advertising Age, May 19, 2008 — If they aren't already losing sleep over this question, global brand marketers have more than enough right to: How must we leverage our global brands?

Studying more than 50 global brands over the last five years, among them global superstars Starbucks and Unilever's Dove, it's clear that the winning leadership mind-set is one that looks beyond typical focus on insights, innovation and communication. Those are a start, but focusing on them won't get you far enough in today's highly competitive global economy. Rather, the leaders I call true global brand CEOs forcefully build long-term global marketing capability by driving a single global strategy, forcing organizational alignment, improving speed-to-market and building brand expertise across geographies.

A Star at Toyota, a Believer at Ford

James D. Farley, Ford’s chief marketing officer, says he grasps that Ford is at a crossroads and that it has been on a tortured path over the last decade

New York Times, April 20, 2008 — AT a dinner here at the Bellagio hotel about two weeks ago, the ballroom buzzed with 1,400 car dealers fired up for a turnaround at the Ford Motor Company. With fresh products coming and a new ad campaign in place, they were ready to celebrate an attempted comeback by the struggling Detroit automaker.

But James D. Farley was hardly in a festive mood.

He had been on the job as Ford’s chief marketing officer for all of six months, lured away from a stellar career with the Japanese juggernaut Toyota to inject similar sizzle into Ford.

Marketers’ Role More Strategic Than in Years Past, a Ways to Go Yet

Marketing Charts, April 8, 2008 — Marketing’s role has become more strategic over the past three years as marketers have helped to drive innovation and new business development at their organizations, according to a joint study by the Association of National Advertisers and BtoB.

Marty Homlish Knows Why CMOs Don't Last†

If You're Not Embedded Into Corporate DNA, You'll Never Succeed, He Says

Advertising Age, April 7, 2008 — Martin Homlish is a rare breed of CMO who can measure his tenure in years, not months. Following 15 years at Sony, where he led, among other things, the launch of PlayStation, Mr. Homlish joined SAP, a business-software company, in June 2000.

Nearly eight years later, as global chief marketing officer of SAP AG, president-CEO of SAP Global Marketing and corporate officer of SAP Group, he is leading a company whose brand value was $10.9 billion in 2007, up 77% since the year he came aboard, according to BusinessWeek/Interbrand annual brand rankings.

TV Makes Strides While Marketers Experiment Widely†

Media Fragmentation, Measurement, Scale and Interactivity Are Just a Few Topics Debated at Our Latest CMO Roundtable

Advertising Age, March 24, 2008 — Is the scale that TV delivers anywhere close to being replaced for marketers? Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom and CMO Strategy Editor Jennifer Rooney recently sat down with Association of National Advertisers President Bob Liodice; Jeff Bell, corporate VP-global marketing for Microsoft's Interactive ntertainment Business; Bob Stohrer, CMO of Virgin Mobile; and Steve Sullivan, senior VP-communications at Liberty Mutual, to answer that and several other critical questions