July 10, 2013
The eTail Blog: Must CMOs Master Tech Tools?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of an article from The eTail Blog, a source of exclusive content generated by and for the e-commerce community.
According to a new report, The CMO’s Role in Technology Purchasing from Forrester Research, digital marketing tools are threatening to undermine the role of chief marketing officers (CMOs) who do not have a strong technological understanding.
Because technology has advanced so quickly in such a short time and many CMOs have traditionally focused on the creative side of marketing, many of them are grappling with the challenge of learning enough skills to stay relevant in their job space. Marketing execs who do not choose to advance their technical skills may run the risk of being left behind and surpassed by more agile counterparts in their departments.
As the number of marketing channels increases, marketing must rely on technology to handle that fragmentation, as well as marry it with internal data sources, the report found.
Tech advances give marketers a way to tie customer viewpoints to a business strategy by using customer data to respond in a very precise way. That ability will require more tech savvy leaders. Because of how fast digital marketing tools have advanced, some CMOs have simply gone rogue and purchased tools they thought they needed without going through IT. Such a solution is a quick fix but lacks perspective, according to the report’s findings. When CMOs miss the integration points of their tech tools and allow the technology to dictate process and strategy, they may be treading dangerous waters.
To avoid such mistakes, it is recommended that CMOs develop a technology strategy and start by building a list of technology must-haves, determine the role of the marketer in making vendor selections and develop tech skills appropriate to the company’s needs.
Forrester then recommends CMOs define and execute a road map based on their buyer’s journey. This includes identifying which technologies are most marketing intensive, such as customer facing, customer enabling, marketing operations and analytics technologies. Additionally, CMOs must find vendors that support and map to their strategy, says the report.
But it all comes back to the tech skills that the CMO has. In order to make those vendor selections and these various strategic decisions, CMOs must develop the technical skills to evaluate vendors and plan strategically around the technology the department will employ.
Forrester interviewed 15 companies for this report including SAP, Marketo, Pitney Bowes and more.
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Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
How is the CMO skill set at retail being redefined by technological advances? Is the role around technology purchasing changing between marketing and IT?
Poll
A good CMO is only as good as his or her team. Being a CMO today is about a team of people that have a common focus—the shopper and the business goals.
As we go down the road, a good CMO will harness the right technology for marketing efforts and remain responsible for the results. This will require the right technology, the right people on their teams, and aligning with the right vendors that know the business of retail, such that they synch with the CMO’s long-range plans and goals, and can be a consistent partner.
CMOs need not be geeks—they need to be retail experts that know their markets and the elements that influence owning the shoppers wallets.
First of all, in the same way that the skill sets of traditional CFOs morphed into the “need to have” skills of modern CEOs, the skill sets of CIOs and/or CTOs will one day soon replace those of traditional CMOs.
The world is changing and IT (or at least many IT functions) is marketing.
The fact that we haven’t designed an org chart to reflect the changing realities of business speaks volumes about why the “marketing” and “IT” silos still exist.
When those silos are finally blown up, I expect we’ll see a revised approach to everything—including purchasing.
The better CMOs have been or are the CIO and the better CIOs are or have been the CMO. Mobility has changed the marketing landscape.
Technology use is a fact of life for consumers. Therefore, technology use by consumers needs to be a significant part of the marketing function. Analyzing technology requires some IT expertise. Therefore, CMOs need to have some technological understanding and technology experts on the team. An integration between IT and Marketing is essential for a company’s success.
The critical issue is not what skills a CMO needs today. The critical skill is how well CMOs are open to and learn about new technologies that assist in learning about and communicating with consumers. Creating an expertise in each new technology is not the critical issue because change is fast and experts in a specific tool can be found in the marketplace. However, the CMO needs to understand the role role new technologies can play and are willing to initiate projects (with appropriate metrics) to figure out what contribution that technology can make to achieving their goals.
CMOs have to keep abreast of up-to-date marketing strategies, managing new outlets, and new IT developments that impact their careers. It’s a lot of work. In order to be successful there has to be a symbiotic relationship between IT and marketing. It’s not enough, however, that marketers have technological skills: IT needs to have some marketing chops as well. Without the two parties understanding where the other is coming from to provide solutions, there will be much time wasted having to campaign on why things are needed, instead of evaluating and actually making things happen.
It’s true, going rogue without IT isn’t often times the best thing to do, however, as a marketer when you’re being asked to deliver results, you don’t have time to wait for IT’s evaluation. Both parties have to be willing and able to comfortably operate in the other’s realm for a successful partnership.
Effective CMOs have native (within their own department) and inside the company talents to support their technology needs. Rapid technology changes are here to stay. Successful CMOs understand that they have to make it part of their department plans.
There is no discipline within companies that technology has not touched. Like all of us, the CMO has to embrace technology for her/his own use, as well as for their teams. Some of that technology will have limited interest, to be sure. However, the CMO has to have go-to associates if they are going to succeed in their roles.
CMOs, by the typical nature of their personalities, walk around with their heads up, not merely buried in a digital device. That offers them an advantage in seeking out and offering help from and to others.
Our society is encapsulated in the infancy of an era of rapid, high technology change. The light speed, breakneck pace of this era is creating lifespans measured in months and weeks for products and processes that take years to build. There is simply no sight or sound of this consumer demand for instant everything relenting. This means that corporate executive skill sets must be sharpest in the ability to manage the tasks of building a highly efficient and productive team and creating relevant reports that identify the progress of of the plan’s critical path components in real time. There just isn’t the time to take a few moments to figure things out any more.
Executives don’t drive bulldozers, fly planes, direct commercials or build web sites. Their job is to drive the company head long into a market in any economic weather condition. What is happening that is cause for concern is the rapid diversity, expansion, change and use of departmental specific vernacular languages. Executives that are pulled together in a team meeting to plan company strategies are using words and phrases that their fellow executives are not familiar with. When and where this occurs, it must be stopped. And that is the responsibility of chief executives that might be absent from these meetings.
It’s time to break down the silos and have the CMO work more closely with the CIO/CTO. Some companies are slouching toward such a relationship; others, not so much.
The CMO must be technologically savvy. And I agree with Camille that a key CMO requirement is being open to learning new technologies and adapting to the fast-changing marketing landscapes.
The changes (revolutions) in the ways brands, manufacturers and retailers need to connect with customers is changing daily. We’re now in the world of big data because so many interactions are digital and can be recorded and measured. Which leads to a need for solid analytics skills.
On the creative side, messages need to be tailored to each of the formats and constraints of the various media channels. Display ads are different from search results. And there are differences between display ads on PCs, tablet and mobile devices. Then there’s the 140 character limit. Or the Facebook post. Or the blog post. And all the required SEM challenges. Lots of variables that change fast.
CMOs absolutely need to be tech savvy. It’s the knothole through which they interact and understand their customers.
The key in retail is to understand the customer journey and how technology does or could play a role in that. CMOs who keep that focus and have a good partner in the CIO will be able to serve their employers well.
With so many new and established technology vendors targeting the retail space, there is a “signal to noise” issue in retail tech. Being an IT savvy CMO can help with focusing on solutions that will truly add value while avoiding the fads and gimmicks.
You know what? Saying a CMO has to understand all the delivery vehicles for his company’s great messages is like saying the person who designs a Porsche Carrera has to know which bolts work best in the car’s drive train. Are you kidding me?
Of course, you have to know what the tools are and what they do (ok, that’s a drive train), but surely how they work should be left to someone who’s goals in life are technology based. I would want my CMO focusing on our brand, which is an intangible element, vs the ins and outs of some code.
Do we want Bill Gates as CMO??? IJS.
There is no doubt that a forward-thinking business requires a forward-thinking CMO. Without a thorough understanding of the potential advantages that new solutions and technologies can deliver, a CMO cannot be effective.
I agree with TRedd in that a good CMO will know enough about technology to be able to discern what is essential to equip the team with to succeed, helping to meet the needs of the consumer, and to achieve marketing and company goals.
Back in the dark ages, when I started my journey into retail, IT people (I was one of them) didn’t know the retail method of accounting or that retail used a different calendar either. We were simply charged with building that functionality into systems, that we did know, in order to speed monthly closings. Thus began the IT journey!
From that time on technology has moved into just about every aspect of retail and IT people have brought their skills to the party right along side the business groups, both learning more and more from each other every day.
Enter marketing. IT now has the challenge of learning about the marketing tools available, impact of the infrastructure, access to data, etc., and marketing people are learning about new marketing techniques, social, digital, custom, etc.
Once again they must find the common ground and build cohesive teams for success. IMHO
Not all that long ago, a seasoned retail COO (Chief Operations Officer) told me, point blank, “I got to this level without ever knowing anything about technology.” I thought to myself, “WOW! Is he serious?!”
We have done extensive research to find out that CMOs will control more IT budget than CIOs by 2015. Additionally, the Digital Marketing spend, alone, will outpace all IT spend in our organizations.
CMOs MUST get tech savvy immediately. Trust me.
Given that most customer experience is now delivered through or intermediated through employees armed with technology, CMO need to have literacy in the capabilities of technology and partner closely with IT to deliver to customers.
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A good CMO is only as good as his or her team. Being a CMO today is about a team of people that have a common focus—the shopper and the business goals.
As we go down the road, a good CMO will harness the right technology for marketing efforts and remain responsible for the results. This will require the right technology, the right people on their teams, and aligning with the right vendors that know the business of retail, such that they synch with the CMO’s long-range plans and goals, and can be a consistent partner.
CMOs need not be geeks—they need to be retail experts that know their markets and the elements that influence owning the shoppers wallets.
First of all, in the same way that the skill sets of traditional CFOs morphed into the “need to have” skills of modern CEOs, the skill sets of CIOs and/or CTOs will one day soon replace those of traditional CMOs.
The world is changing and IT (or at least many IT functions) is marketing.
The fact that we haven’t designed an org chart to reflect the changing realities of business speaks volumes about why the “marketing” and “IT” silos still exist.
When those silos are finally blown up, I expect we’ll see a revised approach to everything—including purchasing.
The better CMOs have been or are the CIO and the better CIOs are or have been the CMO. Mobility has changed the marketing landscape.
Technology use is a fact of life for consumers. Therefore, technology use by consumers needs to be a significant part of the marketing function. Analyzing technology requires some IT expertise. Therefore, CMOs need to have some technological understanding and technology experts on the team. An integration between IT and Marketing is essential for a company’s success.
The critical issue is not what skills a CMO needs today. The critical skill is how well CMOs are open to and learn about new technologies that assist in learning about and communicating with consumers. Creating an expertise in each new technology is not the critical issue because change is fast and experts in a specific tool can be found in the marketplace. However, the CMO needs to understand the role role new technologies can play and are willing to initiate projects (with appropriate metrics) to figure out what contribution that technology can make to achieving their goals.
CMOs have to keep abreast of up-to-date marketing strategies, managing new outlets, and new IT developments that impact their careers. It’s a lot of work. In order to be successful there has to be a symbiotic relationship between IT and marketing. It’s not enough, however, that marketers have technological skills: IT needs to have some marketing chops as well. Without the two parties understanding where the other is coming from to provide solutions, there will be much time wasted having to campaign on why things are needed, instead of evaluating and actually making things happen.
It’s true, going rogue without IT isn’t often times the best thing to do, however, as a marketer when you’re being asked to deliver results, you don’t have time to wait for IT’s evaluation. Both parties have to be willing and able to comfortably operate in the other’s realm for a successful partnership.
Effective CMOs have native (within their own department) and inside the company talents to support their technology needs. Rapid technology changes are here to stay. Successful CMOs understand that they have to make it part of their department plans.
There is no discipline within companies that technology has not touched. Like all of us, the CMO has to embrace technology for her/his own use, as well as for their teams. Some of that technology will have limited interest, to be sure. However, the CMO has to have go-to associates if they are going to succeed in their roles.
CMOs, by the typical nature of their personalities, walk around with their heads up, not merely buried in a digital device. That offers them an advantage in seeking out and offering help from and to others.
Our society is encapsulated in the infancy of an era of rapid, high technology change. The light speed, breakneck pace of this era is creating lifespans measured in months and weeks for products and processes that take years to build. There is simply no sight or sound of this consumer demand for instant everything relenting. This means that corporate executive skill sets must be sharpest in the ability to manage the tasks of building a highly efficient and productive team and creating relevant reports that identify the progress of of the plan’s critical path components in real time. There just isn’t the time to take a few moments to figure things out any more.
Executives don’t drive bulldozers, fly planes, direct commercials or build web sites. Their job is to drive the company head long into a market in any economic weather condition. What is happening that is cause for concern is the rapid diversity, expansion, change and use of departmental specific vernacular languages. Executives that are pulled together in a team meeting to plan company strategies are using words and phrases that their fellow executives are not familiar with. When and where this occurs, it must be stopped. And that is the responsibility of chief executives that might be absent from these meetings.
It’s time to break down the silos and have the CMO work more closely with the CIO/CTO. Some companies are slouching toward such a relationship; others, not so much.
The CMO must be technologically savvy. And I agree with Camille that a key CMO requirement is being open to learning new technologies and adapting to the fast-changing marketing landscapes.
The changes (revolutions) in the ways brands, manufacturers and retailers need to connect with customers is changing daily. We’re now in the world of big data because so many interactions are digital and can be recorded and measured. Which leads to a need for solid analytics skills.
On the creative side, messages need to be tailored to each of the formats and constraints of the various media channels. Display ads are different from search results. And there are differences between display ads on PCs, tablet and mobile devices. Then there’s the 140 character limit. Or the Facebook post. Or the blog post. And all the required SEM challenges. Lots of variables that change fast.
CMOs absolutely need to be tech savvy. It’s the knothole through which they interact and understand their customers.
The key in retail is to understand the customer journey and how technology does or could play a role in that. CMOs who keep that focus and have a good partner in the CIO will be able to serve their employers well.
With so many new and established technology vendors targeting the retail space, there is a “signal to noise” issue in retail tech. Being an IT savvy CMO can help with focusing on solutions that will truly add value while avoiding the fads and gimmicks.
You know what? Saying a CMO has to understand all the delivery vehicles for his company’s great messages is like saying the person who designs a Porsche Carrera has to know which bolts work best in the car’s drive train. Are you kidding me?
Of course, you have to know what the tools are and what they do (ok, that’s a drive train), but surely how they work should be left to someone who’s goals in life are technology based. I would want my CMO focusing on our brand, which is an intangible element, vs the ins and outs of some code.
Do we want Bill Gates as CMO??? IJS.
There is no doubt that a forward-thinking business requires a forward-thinking CMO. Without a thorough understanding of the potential advantages that new solutions and technologies can deliver, a CMO cannot be effective.
I agree with TRedd in that a good CMO will know enough about technology to be able to discern what is essential to equip the team with to succeed, helping to meet the needs of the consumer, and to achieve marketing and company goals.
Back in the dark ages, when I started my journey into retail, IT people (I was one of them) didn’t know the retail method of accounting or that retail used a different calendar either. We were simply charged with building that functionality into systems, that we did know, in order to speed monthly closings. Thus began the IT journey!
From that time on technology has moved into just about every aspect of retail and IT people have brought their skills to the party right along side the business groups, both learning more and more from each other every day.
Enter marketing. IT now has the challenge of learning about the marketing tools available, impact of the infrastructure, access to data, etc., and marketing people are learning about new marketing techniques, social, digital, custom, etc.
Once again they must find the common ground and build cohesive teams for success. IMHO
Not all that long ago, a seasoned retail COO (Chief Operations Officer) told me, point blank, “I got to this level without ever knowing anything about technology.” I thought to myself, “WOW! Is he serious?!”
We have done extensive research to find out that CMOs will control more IT budget than CIOs by 2015. Additionally, the Digital Marketing spend, alone, will outpace all IT spend in our organizations.
CMOs MUST get tech savvy immediately. Trust me.
Given that most customer experience is now delivered through or intermediated through employees armed with technology, CMO need to have literacy in the capabilities of technology and partner closely with IT to deliver to customers.