Is The Chief Marketing Officer The Toughest Job To Have?

Let’s face it, the role of the Chief Marketing Officer is tougher than many suspected.

Have you looked at any job descriptions for the CMO recently? It’s all over the place. The Chief Marketing Officer is suddenly expected to know about everything from data and digital transformation to artificial intelligence and marketing automation. Gone are the days of simply being responsible for the relationship with the advertising agency and managing the brand’s story in the marketplace. The role continues to become more intense, while the position is only being held in the 2 – 4 year range. It’s not looking pretty, especially if you look at the recent trends in zero-based budgeting, procurement, digital disruption and the flows of Wall Street for CPGs and the larger marketing holding companies. Some are beginning to argue that the role of the CMO is so complex that it can’t be done by one person. The best CMOs are being unicorns. Do you believe this to be true? What can the marketing industry do about this? Should the role of the CMO be broken up into different parts? Is there a leadership challenge to the CMO in the c-suite? Is it so completely complex that it’s causing brands to shift away from advertising agencies and over to the management consultancies?

You may want to listen to this: Beancast – Episode #461 – Very Fine People.

This week, I discussed this topic along with Farrah Bostic (The Difference Engine), Lisa Laporte (Twit), Tom Wesbter (Edison Research) and host Bob Knorpp on the very excellent BeanCast Podcast (which I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on in the past). We didn’t just tackle the current role of the CMO. In this episode, we also discussed brands being co-opted by racists, targeting millennials (is this a thing?) and Facebook‘s new influencer marketing toolset. 

Take a listen and jump into the fray…