CMO

About CMO

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a corporate title referring to an executive responsible for various marketing in an organization. Most often the position reports to the chief executive officer.

With primary or shared responsibility for areas such as sales management, product development, distribution channel management, public relations, marketing communications (including advertising and promotions), pricing, market research, and customer service, CMOs are faced with a diverse range of specialized disciplines in which they are forced to be knowledgeable. This challenge is compounded by the fact that the day-to-day activities of these functions, which range from the highly analytical (eg. – pricing and market research) to highly creative (advertising and promotions), are carried out by subordinates possessing learning and cognitive styles to which the CMO must adapt his or her own leadership style.

Beyond the challenges of leading their own subordinates, the CMO is invariably reliant upon resources beyond their direct control. That is to say, the priorities and/or resources of functional areas outside of marketing such as production, information technology, legal, and finance have a direct impact on the achievement of marketing objectives. Consequently, more than any other senior executive, the CMO must influence peers in order to achieve their own goals. Clearly, this necessity to lead peers compounds the complexity of challenge faced by the CMO.

[edit] Challenges

Ultimately, the CMO is responsible for facilitating company communications internally and externally. In-line with other c-level objectives, the CMO must work towards building a profitable company. The unpredictable impact of communications efforts coupled with the need to drive profits often leads to a short tenure for most CMOs. Forbes cited the average CMO tenure has grown to just over 28 months in 2008.^[1]

Coupled with innovative thinking, the CMO must find practical solutions.^[2] Often times, CMOs are challenged by the status quo. Deviations without monetary results can be misunderstood as incompetence and misguided thinking. Further, the CMO must align marketing efforts with other c-level executives, which can create creative conflicts.