The Gestalt of Branding

Are you responsible for marketing your brand? If so, you probably do one or more of the following to promote your brand:

• Television advertising
• Radio advertising
• Print advertising
• Digital advertising
• Outdoor advertising
• Unusual media advertising (sidewalks, busses, sandwich boards, etc.)
• Collateral materials
• Direct mail
• Website
• Content strategy
• Email newsletters
• Blogs
• Social media interaction
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• White papers
• Public relations
• Pitching stories to news outlets
• Publicity stunts
• Other proactive publicity
• Conferences, events and rallies
• Contests
• Membership clubs
• Insignia merchandise
• Frequency programs
• Product sampling
• Special promotions
• Brand licensing
• Sponsorships
• Classes and workshops
• Flagship stores
• Factory tours
• Brand museums
• Trades shows
• Providing industry analysts with brand information
• Special rewards for high value customers
• Brand characters
• Brand spokespeople
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Digital asset management
• Customer touch point design
• Orchestrating legendary customer service
• Co-marketing campaigns with other brands
• Personal selling
• And many, many more marketing strategies and tactics

My point is that marketing is much more complex than it would seem to be at first glance, and associated with that, because resources are never unlimited (and usually quite to the contrary), one must decide the optimal mix of marketing strategies and tactics to achieve marketing and business objectives for the brand. Further, these strategies and tactics must be integrated and supportive of one another and they must reinforce the same brand promise and position. Thus, brand marketing is truly a gestalt. 

What to Look for In a CMO

Question:

"My organization is creating a new CMO role. What should that entail? How should their performance be measured?"

Answer:

To answer this question adequately would require more words than typically occur in a blog post. First, presumably, this person would be a corporate officer reporting to the president or the CEO. So, the person should have had at least one successful vice president of marketing stint in his or her career. While the person does not need to have experience in all aspects of marketing, the more experience he or she has in each marketing discipline the better. Ideally, the candidate would have experience in the following areas:

• Product management
• New product development
• Brand management
• Brand licensing
• Advertising
• Promotion
• Social media
• Big data analytics
• Marketing research
• Pricing strategy
• Distribution strategy
• Public relations
• Trade marketing
• Trade relations
• Sales
• Customer service
• Sales support
• Retail merchandising (depending on the industry)

In general, the CMO would have responsibility for each of these areas except maybe the following, depending on how the organization is structured:

• Sales
• Trade relations
• Corporate communications (including public relations)
• Product management
• New product development

Any individual assuming the CMO responsibility would need to possess these personal qualities, at a minimum:

• Outstanding communicator, orally and in writing
• “Big picture” thinker
• An understanding of how the various marketing elements are successfully integrated
• Assertiveness
• Likeable, approachable
• Strong analytical skills
• Intuition regarding human motivations
• An understanding of financial management
• Good budgeting skills
• General management/P&L management experience is a plus
• Strong people development and mentoring skills

CMO metrics might include any of the following:

• Sales/revenues
• Market share (dollars/units)
• Brand “share of wallet”
• Brand awareness
• Brand preference
• Brand loyalty
• Successful product launches
• Return on marketing investment

A large part of this person’s job is to develop a strong marketing capacity for the organization. This includes establishing the right mix of marketing disciplines as well as staffing them with skilled professionals and providing the proper levels of resources. It also includes succession planning and professional development opportunities for the marketing staff. Further, the role includes championing the marketing function on the leadership team and throughout the organization and weighing and balancing the needs of the marketing function against other organizational functions and investments. Ultimately, this person is responsible for increasing revenues and building and leveraging brand equity.