The Marketer's Bookshelf

MediaPost Publications, September 2, 2009 — MediaPost reviews several new marketing-oriented books

True Marketing Doesn't Just Sell the Story†

To Achieve Top-Line Growth, CMOs Must Design New Businesses

Advertising Age, September 2, 2009 — As the global economy emerges from recession, regardless of when or how quickly, the focus in the executive suite is already shifting from cost cutting to recovering top-line growth. What role can the CMO play? If CMOs are truly to be growth champions for their corporations, they can't simply rely on traditional marketing and brand-building techniques.

In nearly a decade of research, my colleagues and I have found that established companies increasingly are successfully building new businesses on a repeated basis, a process we call corporate entrepreneurship. Marketing — true marketing, not just selling the story but helping create it — must play a central role. True marketing is about understanding current and potential customers better than anyone... continue reading

CMO Sentiment Looking Up

Marketers are optimistic but realistic

eMarketer, August 26, 2009 — According to the July 2009 “CMO Survey” by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association, marketers are looking up after a gloomy recession.

Fully 59% of marketers responding to the survey reported being more optimistic about the economy than three months before. They were also looking up when it came to revenues: 47% reported feeling more optimistic about revenues from end customers and 39% felt the same about revenues from channel partners.

The CMO's Role in a Customer-Centric Organization†

The Head Marketer Is Pivotal to Defining and Implementing Programs About People, Not Products

Advertising Age, August 24, 2009 — Deciding whether to adopt a customer-centric orientation is a significant decision for organizations, not to be made casually. It results in debates defining customer centricity, often with the question, "How customer-centric do we need to be?" Inevitably, it means organizing around the customer and the further proliferation of the types of marketing needed to do so effectively. The many companies that have embraced a customer-centric orientation have experienced some real and often unexpected challenges. At the center of these challenges is the role of the chief marketing officer — the person who needs to deliver thought leadership, lead the strategy debate and reorganization, and then integrate the various marketing types into a company-wide,... continue reading

Why CMO Role Is Not as Important as You Think†

Study of Fortune 1,000 Finds Post's Authority Is Limited at Most Companies

Advertising Age, June 18, 2009 — As if average 28-month tenures weren't enough of a disincentive for marketers to seek the chief marketing officer hot-seat, a recent assessment of SEC filings of Fortune 1,000 companies suggests that the post remains low on the priority list at many organizations, and CMOs' authority remains limited.

Why Do Chief Marketing Officers Have A Short Shelf Life?

Marketing departments should be managed more like sports teams.

Forbes, May 15, 2009 — It's no secret that the CMO position is perhaps the least secure job in top management, with a turnover rate that's faster than major league managers but slower than that among quick service restaurant employees.

According to Greg Welch, who launched Spencer Stuart's marketing practice and now heads the firm's global consumer goods and services business, the average CMO tenure has grown to just over 28 months in 2008, up four months since Welch started measuring CMO tenure in 2004. The average CIO lasts 38 months, and no other c-level executive checks in under 46.

CMOs Still Say They Can Grow Post-Recession

Spencer Stuart Survey: Focus Is on Cost Cutting Rather Than Long-Term Biz Building

CMO Strategy by AdAge, May 4, 2009 — In these tough economic times, chief marketing officers are keeping their heads down, focused on meeting the short-term demands of the job. But are they kidding themselves by thinking that when the recession subsides, they'll be able to jump right back in the game after having shelved long-term plans?

More About What CMOs Are Thinking

The pressure is on.

eMarketer, March 25, 2009 — 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 main marketing challenges chief marketing officers (CMOs) currently face:

* Shifting consumer behavior

* Price positioning

* Stretching marketing dollars

* Embracing digital

The economy is putting the squeeze on every marketing decision, and so, as Mr. Quelch said, financial accountability of marketing is here to stay.

Why CMOs Are Gaining Ground in the Recession

The Four Top Issues on Which CEOs Look to CMOs for Guidance

CMO Strategy by AdAge, March 10, 2009 — Some good news for marketing heads: Chief marketing officers are holding on to their jobs longer. Spencer Stuart's annual survey of CMO tenure at the 100 most advertised brands in the U.S. reveals average time on the job has risen to 28.4 months from 26.8 months in 2007 and 23.2 months in 2006.

Producing Accountability in Hard Times

CMOs' Perennial Charge Is Even Tougher Now -- but Not Impossible

CMO Strategy by AdAge, January 12, 2009 — Accountability is clearly keeping marketers up at night as the economic crisis continues to thread its way across industries around the globe and 2009 budgets come under greater scrutiny. So with economies performing badly in ways not seen in decades, all marketers should have a method-based and actionable answer to why marketing dollars are not a dispensable spending item but instead an investment with measurable ROI.