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Today’s marketer, and specifically the chief marketing officer, is under increasing pressure to stay ahead of how buyers prefer to engage their brand and buy their products or services, as well as finding new lines of revenue for growth. As such, the strong are surviving — brands disrupting themselves are growing faster, and the new wave of direct-to-consumer brands are quickening the race pace.
As a partner to clients who are modern CMOs leading by example I’ve noticed three areas these thriving marketing pros excel at leveraging to increase their market share. This modern CMO playbook can be broken down into three C’s:
1. Creativity: Respect for powerful storytelling told on modern platforms
Even with technological advances, brands are still built at scale by connecting with a consumer emotionally. Successful brands motivate consumers to engage daily by delivering on their promise in bite-size engagements. They also build brand value over the long term with insightful, meaningful creativity that encourages consumers to feel something.
Modern CMOs have a deep, innate understanding of how their buyers make purchasing decisions inside (and outside) the category in order to shape those stories with powerful content at the right moments. They deliver tailored communications focused on those consumers when they are in the mindset and available to make buy decisions. It’s important to master the lifestyle and mindset of your buyer, finding new ways to engage them with stories, products and emotional content.
2. Culture: Be it, don’t buy it
Consumers are in their most receptive state when engaging in a passion point — whether fashion, sports, music, art or gaming. The most modern CMOs understand this and find real, authentic ways for their brands to participate versus buy their way into areas of culture where they just don’t seem to fit or feel gratuitous. Especially with the emerging consumer, data proves they will have passion for brands that “get” them. In fact, IBM research found that 53% of Gen Z respondents state their favorite brand is able to understand them as an individual.
Glossier is an example of a brand that competes in the difficult beauty category but has won the hearts and wallets of the important young female demographic. According to an Adobe report, “64% of Generation Z shoppers and 72% of millennial shoppers think brands should provide a personalized experience,” and Glossier does this exceptionally well, both online and offline. The brand engages its audience with direct, personalized dialogue that ensures consumers are as invested in the brand as they are the products. Glossier’s founder and CEO even goes so far as to call its consumers “stakeholders.” By tapping into relevant user-generated social content, Glossier then creates even more conversations among its consumers. And what Glossier has done so well is leverage social experiences into physical experiences with its pop-ups.
Another example of a brand authentically joining today’s culture is Chef Boyardee. The song and music video created for the American brand featuring Donnie Osmond and Lil Yachty held a position on Spotify’s Viral Hit List for weeks. I believe this worked so well because, to reach a younger audience, the brand tapped into different storytelling platforms that resonate more with that demographic than traditional ads. By creating content that transcended advertising to become entertainment, Chef Boyardee became relevant to an entirely new coveted audience. Culture can work for any brand, but it takes some understanding of the consumer psyche and then finding an entry point that feels organic versus forced.
3. Commerce: Data and new experiences driving sales
Modern CMOs aren’t just about storytelling, however. They are focused on becoming literate in all aspects of consumer and marketing data to ensure the next dollar spent is properly allocated. From modern customer journey mapping to planning and developing new e-commerce experiences or figuring out what the next mobile payment movement will be, the modern CMO’s role goes beyond marketing.
Modern CMOs are not only focused on building their brands for the future but also creating the experiences, products and data sets to support that future state. This is a different body language from the marketer of yesteryear. The best CMOs stay curious and current by having a growth mindset, engaging and trusting partners, spending time out of the office with other brands and executives at innovative industry events, and partnering with the CEO on innovation budgets to prepare for what’s next.
It’s clear that the market is moving fast. CMOs have to be storytellers and culture experts all while developing a new set of skills to compete with the disruptive brands entering their categories to fundamentally change how things are done at scale. The larger brands can learn from their fearless approaches. With that said, my one takeaway from working with the world’s most modern CMOs on a daily basis is they all share a beginner’s mindset and attack their plans with humility and curiosity no matter how significant or the size of their brand or role.
