Digital marketing. Mobile marketing. Brand-building. While there are many articles on specific marketing-related topics, there is not much written about what it is like to be a CMO. What are the worries, the unique challenges and even the lessons that fuel a CMO’s success? To answer these questions, I am beginning “The CMO Insight Series,” designed to provide perspective on the challenges facing today’s top CMOs and the wisdom accumulated through experience. I start the series with Jeff Jones, CMO at Target. What follows are questions related to the challenges, the worries, the learning and the advice Jones has for current and future C-level marketing leaders.
Q1: What is the biggest challenge you’ve had as a CMO?
A: We are transforming Target, which is easily the biggest and most exhilarating challenge I’ve faced in my career. It started by challenging our long-held beliefs and evaluating everything we do -- our understanding of the consumer, our positioning, our product, our omni-channel experience, our marketing communications and our overall capabilities. Next was getting clear about our Purpose, Beliefs and Strategies.
I’m fortunate that marketing is so valued at Target. We are not just “at the table” but expected to be instrumental in shaping strategy and ensuring a guest-centric approach. I think the diversity of experiences in my career has prepared me well for these challenges.
Q2: What is it that keeps you up at night?
A: I have always been a bit of a behavioral economics and neuroscience junkie and because of Target’s transformation, I’ve become a student of organizational behavior. A concept I’ve embraced is VUCA, which is an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. VUCA is what keeps me up at night. How do I lead and build capability in a world that is more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous? The value of VUCA is that it helps to improve strategic planning by forcing you to anticipate the issues that shape conditions, understand the consequences of decisions, appreciate the interaction of variables, and prepare for unforeseen challenges.
While the framework is very present for me, it causes me to lose sleep because it makes it clear you can’t plan for everything. How do you lead in such a complex environment? How do you follow a disciplined decision making process while moving fast enough in a rapidly changing marketplace? Most large companies became successful in a slower, more predictable world and that just doesn’t exist today.
Q3: What is your Crystal Ball prediction? What do you think the future of marketing will be and how will it be different from today?
A: Right now, skills are blending, requiring marketers to have a combination of marketing, product, and experience management capabilities. You used to be able to be a good marketer if you knew how to develop great advertising. That isn’t enough today, and increasingly, great marketers need to develop the skills required of many CEOs. They will need to be adept at finance, innovation, experience design, and technology….on top of traditional marketing skills.
Q4: Research shows that 80% of CEOs are disappointed with their CMOs. Why do you think that is? What can CEOs and CMOs do?
A: I find that many believe that being a CMO is about advertising. The CMO title is one of the most misused titles in business because there are many people being called CMO who are mainly responsible for marketing communications. CMOs should be strategic drivers of growth and able to partner with business leaders, CFOs and CEOs. You need to be able to connect consumer insights with strategy to create plans that can ultimately translate to business growth. And you can’t do it with just advertising alone.
So what needs to happen? Movement is required on both sides. CMOs must be able to focus on more than marketing communications. CEOs can move to the middle by understanding that marketing is about more than advertising. If CEOs are looking for a true business driver, they need a CMO who understands that marketing is a strategic function, which includes advertising as one of its many different levers. Marketing as a function needs to be repositioned! Too many people “end up in marketing” versus choose marketing as a career. I hope I can have an impact in changing this situation during my career.
Q5: What are the skills that students should acquire to prepare them to be future C-level marketing leaders?
- Be Insanely Curious: As a marketer, you have to be driven by the consumer that you are serving, and you can only do that when you are insanely curious about them. You can’t change the world if you are not curious about it.
- Don’t Hide from Math: Today, marketers can’t hide from math. Great marketers are students of business and know how to make money. If this doesn’t come naturally, commit to making it a reality. Take classes and read. Seek mentors. Most people have the capability if they are disciplined.
- Bring Clarity to Complexity: You want to be a student of strategic thinking and communication, which means excelling at bringing clarity to complex things. More and more marketers have responsibility for corporate communications. This has to be part of the skill set.
- Be Unafraid to Provoke: We are here to change consumers’ minds and behavior, and you can’t do that with incrementality.
- Love What you Do: The job requires a lot and the hours are long. Love what you do. You’ll be better for it!
Interested in more CMO Insight? Check out the following: Deepak Advani (IBM); Duncan Aldred (Buick/GMC); Matthew Boyle (CMO, AAFCPAs); Bill Campbell (CMO, Chatham University); Steve Cook (former CMO, Samsung); Rishi Dave (CMO, Dun & Bradstreet); John Dillon (CMO, Denny’s); Kristin Hambelton (CMO, Evariant); Jeff Jones (CMO, Target); Michele Kessler (CEO, thinkThin), Antonio Lucio (CMO, HP); Tim Mahoney (Global CMO, Global Chevrolet and Global Marketing Operations Leader, GM); Jim McGinnis (Intuit); Jim Melvin (former CEO and current CMO in Tech); C. David Minifie (CMO/EVP Corporate Strategy, Centene Corp); Anne Pritz (CMO, Sbarro); Martine Reardon (CMO, Macy’s); David Roman (CMO, Lenovo); Robin Saitz (CMO, Brainshark); Ajit Sivadasan (Lenovo); Ron Stoupa (CMO, Sports Authority); Ken Thewes (CMO, Regal Entertainment Group); Scott Vaughan (CMO, Integrate); Brent Walker (CMO/Co-Founder, C2B Solutions); and Barry Westrum (EVP, International Dairy Queen).
Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler
