A CMO By Any other Name….
There’s a great scene in the John Wayne version of The Alamo (my favorite version of that classic tale) in which Wayne’s character, Davy Crockett, tells Jim Bowie and William Travis that they’re all colonels in some army or militia or other and if they insist on calling each other colonel no one will know who’s talking to whom.
I often think of that scene as the first recorded instance of title inflation. The New York Times discussed title inflation in a great story Oct. 26 about how companies have more president titles than they ever have, presidents of divisions, regions, product lines.
More and more companies also have chief marketing officers these days. The concept behind calling someone CMO is to elevate the importance of marketing in a corporate structure and, perhaps as important, put the head of marketing at the right hand of a CEO as he or she is setting corporate policy and direction.
But is it working out that way? Does having a CMO title elevate the role of marketing, or ensure that it gets more resources? Should it be preserved, or is it a title that may not live up to its potential?
We’re going to be taking an in-depth look at that in Marketing News sometime in early 2009, but in the meantime, let me know what you think, and what you’ve experienced.
Comments
My company hired a CMO 3 years ago for the first time in its 55-year history. We fired him 4 months ago. It certainly helped position the marketing department's resources and strategic clout within the organization. However, this person immersed himself too much into the day-to-day and not enough into higher level issues with other members of senior management, which should be the mission of a CMO.
For example, there's an opportunity in our company to better integrate our franchise development (i.e. store expansion) strategy with our marketing strategy. However, this individual was more concerned with the day-to-day of brand management and other tactical matters (i.e. reverting to his comfort zone). He failed to realize that we needed him more involved with Senior. Management and less in our day-to-day.
As a result, he struggled with getting decisions made and delegating authority. We spent a lot of time planning and no time actually executing the plan until after he was fired. We also now have excessive title inflation in the office (i.e. a lot of director titles given to people who are at best managers).
A CMO position has merit, but it has to be the right person: someone who already has a proven track record of success, and understands how to bridge gaps between marketing and other parts of the organization where appropriate.
Posted by: Tony | November 24, 2008 8:11 AM