CMO's Take Back Marketing?

I’m catching up on my reading this holiday week… unfortunately, I’ve let it pile up, shame on me!

The October 31 issue of Advertising Age has an interesting article in the Opinion Column summarizing a recent speech given by Bob Liodice, President-CEO of the Association of National Advertising.  With an article titled “ANA Chief Calls on CMO’s to Take Back Marketing, but Do They Really Want to?” got my attention.

A top line on the article:

1.  Company sales performance is growing at 2% annually

2.  9 of 10 big brands are losing share

3.  Overworked and under trained marketers

4. CMO’s need to lead – drive business results, etc.

5.  Brand building is waning

6.  Competing financial decisions

A few thoughts…

1.  Big brands might be losing share – competition from overseas competitors, outsourcing to lower costs and lack of innovation are surely some of the specific reasons.  Building the brand is critical but there are other factors which are probably impacting growth.

2.  Medium and smaller brand growth – looking at the big boys is great, however I wonder if the same sales performance issues are impacting those further down the size scale.

3.  Training – yes it’s a huge issue.  Everyone talks about it, but it seems no one actually does it.  It’s not just sending people to courses.  It’s giving them projects beyond their skill sets and mentoring/teaching them to do it.  It’s allowing for failure.

4.  Skill Sets – what use to be the norm is for Marketers to be skilled in all aspects of the marketing trade – PR, brand, media, direct, social, mobile, search, web, advertising, production, creative, strategy, planning, database, writing, etc.  However, today there is so much specialization most Marketers don’t know how the pieces fit together.

5.  Financial Management – this isn’t anything new, so I wonder why it’s all of sudden considered a big issue.  Where to spend or invest marketing dollars varies by each business… but where most get it wrong is that they invest in areas which don’t drive sales, pay for things which really aren’t true marketing expenses and a whole bunch of other areas which I won’t go further into.

6.  Never Outsource Strategy – if you’re not smart enough to develop the foundation of your company’s marketing strategy,  then you shouldn’t have the job.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t work with others to develop the strategy, but outsourcing it to a 3^rd party isn’t wise in any situation.  

7.  If leadership is showing where we need to go then management is about actually getting it done.  And some Marketers don’t have a great track record of late on not only leadership but management as well.  The media rebate scandal, allowing procurement to own agency selection/management, outsourcing strategy to agencies – these are all symptoms of not focusing on block and tackling marketing. 

The ANA’s call for CMO’s to take back marketing?  CMO’s should have never let it go in the first place.

Scott