The CMO is dead – long live the chief customer officer! (MyCustomer.com)

CMOs are increasingly powerless and peripheral. The CEO sets the overall strategy, the R&D and innovation teams design the product, and the CFO determines pricing and departmental budgets. The CMO, meanwhile, reports to a chief executive who often has only partial knowledge of the customer. …

The CMO position is dead for several reasons:

Most CMOs are not really immersed in marketing activities. By this I mean understanding, creating and delivering value to the customer. Too many CMOs are constrained, focusing on PR and communications and not on products or pricing, …

Marketing impact is often hard to measure. Marketing is more art than science. It’s difficult to quantify the results of a marketing campaign, and to know whether all those millions of dollars spent have led to an increase in real sales. And when a downturn comes, the marketing budget is often the first to be cut. …

Get rid of the CMO title, because nobody understands it. Create the new title of CCO – chief customer officer. This person must be the voice of the customer in the organization, taking views and messages from the market and spreading them internally. Changing a job title is clearly not enough, but there are other concrete steps that can be taken.

via The CMO is dead – long live the chief customer officer!.

Well, there is some truth in the posting, but I have a different view on the role of Marketing. I have seen Marketing – including the CMO – becoming number crunchers focussing solely on spreadsheets, pipeline evaluation and numerous slide decks. Marketing is not Controlling. Marketing – in my opinion – is being out there. Get out of the office! Visit the customers, listen and talk to them. Be vocal. Maybe Marketing is more art than science. But for sure Marketing should not be number crunching. Put the customer in the centre. Agreed on, in particular in the Social Age! Marketing, opinion leading, influence, listening and Customer Relationships are today more important than even. BTW: This includes for sure PR and Communications. So for sure Marketing is not dead. It is more important than ever. Call it whatever you want it to call. I still prefer Marketing.