A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the individual who oversees the marketing efforts of a company and long a staple at most organizations.  In the past, the CMO was primarily a marketing strategist and a liaison to an external agency where the true magic happened. However, as stated recently in Forbes, “the pure CMO is the role of a bygone era” – the traditional role of a CMO must evolve to be meaningful and impactful in modern companies.

The expansion of the marketing role – and the increased expectations of the responsibilities undertaken and the skills required by the one who fills it – repositions marketing as a common thread throughout all company activities.

How can the CMO role evolve?

In addition to responsibilities traditionally associated with the CMO role – guiding market research, market positioning, brand development and devising marketing strategies – the modern CMO should be involved with product development, business strategy and development, and if not already, the salesforce.  A CMO can also be a critical business partner in employee communications and relations. Digital product design leverages many of the same disciplines and lessons from digital marketing.  Creating engagement, directing action, promoting sharing and interactions – good marketing leaders have been testing and optimizing these tactics for 20+ years and can apply those same concepts to product development.

The hallowed product/market fit, the sign that a start-up or a first generation product is poised for sustainability or growth?  A marketing leader has the ability to combine the research practice, the combination of value proposition with feature set, into a cohesive experience. The head of any business’ marketing team should be heavily involved with the business design of the organization, as more and more the company brand position and story is intertwined with strategy.  What the market believes you can do, where they see your strengths, that is a controllable narrative, one that makes the fulfillment of your strategy not a goal, but an inevitability.

More and more, storytelling is shaped not only by an official account, but by combining the stories of customers and employees.  While this causes anxiety for the risk adverse, it's a huge opportunity think of all these sources as assets and tie content and social strategy to business strategy. Having these responsibilities overseen by the modern CMO will ensure that your products, marketing efforts and communications will be flawlessly aligned with the brand – and you’ll have a marketing strategy that’s backed by tangible, quantifiable results that prioritize profit, maximizing the effectiveness of your brand’s marketing efforts.

How can you ensure the rapid transformation of your marketing function?

If you can't create the CMO function to be broader at the start, transformation is still possible.  The first step is redefining the expectations for the role.  For those who want to evolve on the job, there are ways to supplement weak points with outside strategy help.  However, the most important shift is aligning an organization to the power this change can bring.  
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If you want to enhance your business and business strategy, then make sure you hire a multi-faceted CMO who can use their experience to propel your organization forward.  Get in touch for an assessment or your organization, or help in transforming your team.