So what are the best practices that top CMOs are focusing on now, and how can they be evolved for competitive advantage in the future?

Here are 3 recommendations to fuel confidence:

1. Create red hot relevance by mapping all participants — not just buyers.

The best-in-class panelists and marketers at Econsultancy Live knew they needed a deep understanding of their customers, but many also highlighted how they often struggled to gain agile insights in a changing market, utilize all internal data, or map out what content or touch points were really effective. Those are obviously problems that need to be sorted out quickly and AI may come to the rescue. But with empowered consumers rethinking how they buy and who they trust, plus an expanding competitor field, those looking to the future need to widen their view. They need to build a deeper ongoing understanding of the evolving customer beyond their category limits and the relationships of all participants in their ecosystem. Not all brands are as cool as Marvel, but they can learn from the approach of Adri Cowan, who manages a team that daily has to energize the inter-relationship of fandoms and IP-led properties to stay relevant. She showed us how testing, learning, pushing boundaries and keeping the data flowing keeps her team, and more importantly, the rest of the business up to date. Marvel, like many entertainment brands, has learned from the masterful Disney flywheel — which shows how a focus on feeding incremental learnings across the businesses and people who interact, creates enduring momentum.

2. Harness the ecosystem beyond a linear journey to ignite all areas of influence.

I was very much looking forward to Jos Harrison’s session on “Connected Experience in FMCG” with a focus from a product-led to service-led approach. Using Nike as a starting point for the value of building meaningful relationships and advocacy, he even managed to fend off cynical questions about the relevance of Nike to products in, what some may describe as, his “low interest category” Reckitt portfolio. His examples and creative solutions were a nice counter to the debate about getting the balance of creativity and efficiency right in digital, but it still seemed to focus too much on designing for the linear rather than the unique and exponential. It reflected what the best brands are doing, be it Berryworld supporting bakers during Coronation weekend or Kleenex’s hayfever content, but it stopped short of looking beyond a very linear journey. With 3 in 4 consumers shopping with a fusion of on and offline tactics, using multiple devices at once in a wide array of situations, and taking inspiration from far and wide as trust in advertising falls, brands need to look wider in order to win. The focus should shift to an ecosystem perspective which translates a customer’s interactions into holistic data to truly fuel a plan for the future and looks at how to connect with them more regularly and frequently in a valuable way for all.

3. Start with purpose not product for meaningful disruption.

“Purpose” can have a bad rap and is increasingly seen as last season’s fluffy new toy versus a tool for hard-nosed digital marketers, but this is because there are so many meaningless purposes out there. A good purpose is unique and widens the scope for content and connection. In today’s world where ecommerce is standard, a good purpose opens the door to better brand building initiatives driving emotional relationships. A focus on performance marketing alone for D2C disruptors can prove fatal when they themselves are disrupted or prices are undercut. A good purpose activated helps extend beyond this in a unique way, creating long term mutual value and transcending a reliance on paid media. It was refreshing to hear brand discussed in the ecommerce session, but sad to see so few examples of D2C companies doing it well.

CarWow is brilliant a platform business, having seen huge success in the UK by focusing on connecting with normal cars buyers not car fanatics. Their hugely successful and fun YouTube channel takes its inspiration from “Top Gear” and the best online car influencers, but primarily talks to a car fan audience. Although the car fan is an influencer to their buyer, there is a bigger opportunity. A strong brand purpose could open a wider aperture for moments of engagement and community with their core non car fan target and beyond. Starting with purpose also counters cost dynamics, builds long term value, and help humanize the relationship.

As we move toward what’s next, CMOs will gain competitive advantage if they can: let purpose power interactions, and keep the customer front and center while leveraging influence and opportunity across the larger ecosystem. Then they can face the future with confidence.

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In a world where everyone wants more, business as usual tactics have lost their effectiveness. Customer satisfaction depends on a more sophisticated and immediate experience. The market calls for more innovation. Companies seek more accountability and a greater impact on the bottom line.

Market intelligence is the answer to each of these challenges which puts CMOs front and center. Businesses will expect them to rise to the challenge and capitalise on new opportunities for value creation.

New rules demand new skill sets and fresh approaches

Download The New CMO Game Plan and discover:

• Three key capabilities for CMOs intent on leading from the front in a connected world where strategy is determined in real-time.
• How to transform five core business functions to deliver long-term equity that focuses on customer value.
• How platform thinking can put your brand in a different league to the competition.

Today’s business challenges demand unconventional thinking about business strategy and brand positioning. In this age of disruption, product and service innovations are not enough. Brands need to think like a platform business to connect more deeply with diverse partners. They also need to rethink their category and relationships.

The power of platform thinking

Platformization presents a clear opportunity for brand leadership. By harnessing technology and data, a platform creates an ecosystem that facilitates interactions and collaboration at an unprecedented scale. Platforms fuel innovation and generate customer insights that spark value creation.

Marketing is the fulcrum of the platform economy. It extracts the intelligence required to uncover the organization’s next play and enables customer experience management. Technology makes it easier than ever to measure customers’ data and track their progress through the customer journey. However, more data doesn’t automatically confer greater insight.

Tasked with being cognizant of the bigger picture, CMOs have their finger on the pulse of developing customer needs. From their position at the centre, the CMO’s analytical acumen is critical.

Their customer data is not only vital to the marketing plan. It can uncover new growth opportunities, direct corporate culture and shape mindsets as the game evolves. A focus on generating business-building competitive advantage will naturally shape the strategy and agenda of the management team.

Platform thinking requires all the diverse capabilities of an organization to be in play and moving in the same direction. Success depends on an organisational culture that celebrates cross-functional collaboration and integration.

Build Your Business, Not Just Your Brand

CMOs who have set their sights on building the business, not just the brand, will need to transcend traditional silos. Without a willingness to lower barriers, the benefits of big data cannot permeate throughout the organization. Their job is to enable and orchestrate, using real-time observations and predictive analytics to inform and inspire. Empowering their C-suite colleagues, and other internal and external partners, to exceed customers expectations  is a top priority.

When activated by collaboration and well-honed commercial instincts, marketing’s continuous flow of intelligence makes CMOs vital for value creation and revenue growth.

It is time to rip up the playbook and redefine the field. From transaction to interaction. From competition to collaboration. From broadcast to participation.

Vivaldi has created brand strategies, experiences, innovations and platforms that have answered the questions posed in The New CMO Game Plan for some of the world’s most forward-thinking brands. If you have questions for us, we’d be pleased to hear from you.

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The session started out with Dr. Markus Zinnbauer, one of the authors of Vivaldi Partners’ “Always-On Consumer” study, explaining the new consumer behaviors: One in two consumers can be characterized as ‘always-on’ today, but there are still important differences between consumer groups. The study introduces five segments ranging from highly socially connected consumers, or “Social Bumblebees”, to retargeting-averse “Ad Blockers”. These types of new consumers illustrate why it is people, not technology, that is changing today’s markets.

The event’s participants, all marketing experts, then engaged into a lively debate on how to effectively target the Always-On Consumer in the future, when classical demographic-based media planning will not be sufficient anymore and context-based mechanics will become crucial.

Mirroring Vivaldi Partners’ broader outside-in view, Vivaldi Zurich’s Roland Bernhard then explained how marketing executives need to respond to those changes. The good news, he said, was that the new, digitally empowered consumer does not only bring about change but also new opportunities. In other words, as Prof. Kevin L. Keller (a member of Vivaldi’s advisory board) put it: “It’s not just the consumers who are empowered these days. Companies are too!” Roland elaborated on the three vital core capabilities, which he had previously outlined in our recent CMO study: Analytical Acumen, Collaborative Mindset, and Commercial Instinct. The latter especially led to a great discussion on how operational a CMO needs to become in order to provide added value for consumers beyond marketing communications.

A set of inspiring case studies from Vivaldi Partners illustrated how companies can leverage digital means in order to create added value for customers and consumers along the whole value chain from business model to actual delivery of services.

The presentation seamlessly fed into an open dialog for the rest of the evening, where members of the Marketing Club, friends of Vivaldi Partners, and the Munich Vivaldi team also enjoyed finger food and a selection of drinks.

We want to thank Norbert Gierlich, board member of the Marketing Club’s Munich chapter, for organizing and moderating the evening. He will also feature the CMO study in the next issue of the member magazine.

Curious about “The changing role of the CMO”? The study is available free of charge here.

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