I recently went through a very interesting video from Aprimo Marketing, the company has been working with Chief Marketing Officers to identify the key imperatives to transform the marketing function in order to address a new set of challenges. Looking at our current investment at IBM (recent acquisitions of Unica, SPSS, Coremetrics or Cognos are some examples), I recognize that some of them are key transformation drivers and usually have the same starting point: the marketing must be accountable. It may sounds obvious but there will be many changes (cultural, technological...) that will come out of this imperative and marketers should envision it as a unique opportunity to deliver more value and innovation to their ecosystem (not just clients). Most of all, it's a healthy way to prioritize, manage by objective and remove workloads with low impact to the business. Here is the list of their top 10 marketing imperatives (mainly about automation/measurement, Digital, brand experience/control):
1. Marketing Must Be Accountable
2. The CMO Must Be the Change Agent
3. Let Go, Customers Control Your Brand
4. Engage Customers With Conversations.
5. Free Your Content
6. Integrate to Innovate Online and Offline
7. Be Mobile. Be Everywhere. Be Relevant
8. Tear Down the Silos
9. Automate the Science of Marketing
10. Be Maniacal, Prove ROI
From an IBM perspective (as we're rapidly increasing our focus on this audience with software solutions coming from acquisitions, consulting and integration services...), it's all about the Agile Enterprise Marketer who has to manage conflicting demands, focusing on short term ROI and marketing's impact/effectiveness while investing in new domains such as Web 2.0 or social networking. I invite you to download and read the CMO Insights whitepaper.
If you are interested in other reports related to the CMO priorities, I encourage you to go to Forrester website to get insights, such as latest report on 'Trends For The CMO To Watch In 2011', here is a recap of the findings:
- Digital initiatives in order to build brand equity
- Poach and retain new and current customers using digital
- Let the social media war begin!
- CMOs becoming agents for change within their organizations
- Silos are a thing of the past
- Employees are often your best sales/marketing force
- Video convergence is key
- Marketers thinking about digital assets via a brand driven approach
- Development of a holistic view of ROI