88% of organizations believe that responsibilities of a chief marketing officer (CMO) has changed in last two years, according to a research by Accenture and Forrester.
In last few years, the businesses have shifted their business goals, and everyone is responsible for driving organizational growth. The key for that growth is to provide a good customer experience (CX). For effectively achieving the goals, organizations have started to introduce new titles to the C-Suite.
However, many organizations have failed to provide good customer experiences, because they missed the role of a chief collaborator. Among all the C-Suite executives, the position of CMO seems to be the most suitable to adopt these responsibilities. The CMOs will need to evolve their role and become CMO collaborator.
A CMO collaborator can eliminate the need of introducing another C-Suite title, and drive collaboration across the organizations.
Forrester Consulting conducted ten interviews and an online survey with around 250 senior-level marketing decision makers from different industries. Commissioned by Accenture Interactive, the research was aimed to evaluate the role of CMO in building and delivering experiences, and the need for collaboration across entire organization.
The report, titled “Rethink the Role of the CMO”, reveals that 87% of organizations think that traditional experiences aren’t enough to satisfy customers.
Key findings of ‘Rethink the Role of the CMO’ report by Accenture and Forrester:
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CMO collaborators can align entire organization and CX strategy to achieve brand vision
A chief marketing officer is leader for not only the desired perception of the brand, but also the actual perception of customer for the brand.
Collaboration of internal teams and outside partners can align the entire organization on brand vision. This can curate experiences to achieve that vision while delighting customers, finds the report.
When CMOs become CMO Collaborators, they will empower their teams to work across the company, departments and locations to build a collaboration across all lines of business. This can set them apart from the traditional marketers.
90% of organizations said that they see CMO as a bridge between different lines of business.
According to the report, 95% of collaboration leaders believe that their CXs surpass their competitors, compared to 68% of traditional marketers. Also, the collaboration leaders are two times more likely to collaborate across the C-Suite than the traditional marketers.
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CMOs need to master the use of customer insights
It is important to align the brand and customer experience. The marketing teams should know their customers, understand the things they value, and advocate for them in product, sales, and operational decisions.
What this means is that the CMOs will need to master the use of customer insights at a broad level, rather than leaving this responsibility to other teams.
81% of collaboration leaders said that they have an empathetic relationship with customers based on insights, compared to 53% of traditional marketers. Also, 90% of collaboration leaders agreed that they meet the expectations of customers, compared to 77% of traditional marketers.
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Companies need to make investment in right technology to meet customer expectations
Since the marketing depends relies mostly on technology for providing relevant and customized experiences, it is important for companies to invest in right technologies.
Currently, around 50% of marketing technology purchasing decisions happen outside the marketing department. The research highlights that CMOs need to have a key voice in decision making for adopting technologies used in business units, multiple channels and regions.
CMO collaborators will need to bring technology decisions and customer needs into a single line. This will help in building a technology strategy that is most appropriate for customers and the organization.
“Each time the CEO creates a new c-suite title it’s often code for the fact that he or she feels that nobody is successfully driving the customer experience agenda,” said Glen Hartman, head of Accenture Interactive, North America.
“We believe that by thinking like a CMO Collaborator, CMOs can fulfil their potential and seize the CX agenda to drive top-line growth for organizations. By adopting this mindset, CMOs can be the ones who are the voice of the customer and can align their organization, their agency partners and their technology partners to focus on delivering the best experiences on the planet for their customers.”
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The research suggests that CMO collaborators should emphasize customer obsession over campaign creation. Such marketers will be able to command the voice of customer in the C-Suite. They should determine the way every function plays their part in the life cycle of customer satisfaction.
Read the full report here.
Images source: Accenture
