Any organization’s marketing activities fall under the responsibility of the Chief Marketing Officer. Their primary responsibilities encompass various aspects of brand marketing such as market research, product promotion, brand image management, and customer service, to name but a few.
Their presence is important to any company in that they act as anchors for every marketing effort undertaken by the brand. They give their respective companies a sense of direction in terms of how they want to communicate their different propositions to their customers.
We all know of the famous saying, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and this applies all the more aptly to CMOs of any organization. Over the years, these responsibilities have only grown in the face of an increasingly evolving marketing landscape. As such, many hurdles come in the way of a CMOs journey, which any marketing aficionado would do well to learn about.
Common challenges faced by CMOs today
1. Keeping up with technology
Being in the 21st century, technology finds its way into every sphere of our work and daily lives. The marketing industry is no exception, with technology having given marketing a whole new dimension of importance, credited mostly to the internet and social media. Today, a brand/ business simply cannot omit building a presence online via social media platforms; it is almost a prerequisite for their brand to survive and thrive. For CMOs, staying aware and on their toes about the latest technological updates in marketing is key to helping their business stay relevant by leveraging these different new tools. CMOs must constantly research and evaluate the latest tools and find ways to use them in order to stay ahead of the competition.
2. Boosting ROI
The biggest and most important parameter to judge the success of any marketing effort is to calculate how much money is earned back after investing into it. Simply put, a significant amount of Return of Investment is always desirable, given that a considerable chunk of a company’s capital is required to fuel different types of campaigns. This is especially true for brands that are just getting started and need to highly prioritize advertising themselves to attract & build an initial base of customers who would go on to become their buyers and loyal supporters. A CMO must be able to foresee how much investment the company can make back on advertising, and allocate financial resources judiciously so as to prevent excess losses in case the marketing may not be able to perform up to the mark.
3. Talent acquisition
Behind every successful marketing campaign is a team of highly competent people that spend days and nights conceptualizing & executing them. Simply put, nothing can ever take shape without human minds. No matter how advanced a technological feature may appear to be, there is no discounting the necessity of human resources. Because of this, a CMO must also be able to identify and acquire talent for the organization whose skills can skyrocket the brand’s marketing with intellect, wit, and humour exuded in every step of the way. Adding to this, CMOs must identify shortages of talent across different departments and troubleshoot them by acquiring more and higher quality resources towards the required areas.
4. Blending traditional and digital
In the face of all the digitization and influence of technology in the marketing industry, one must not turn a blind eye towards traditional methods. After all, if we don’t remember where we came from, how will we know where to go forward? In the context of the advertising industry, this means knowing when to use traditional methods in such a way that they blend seamlessly with digital ones so as to create a marketing experience that draws from the best of both spheres. The reason this is important is that customer bases can come from various different places, and not every group may be well versed with digital or vice versa. Leveraging both digital and traditional effectively can also allow for a show of creativity in many different ways, given that each method requires a different approach when it comes to making use of them in the best manner. A CMO’s responsibility here thus becomes concerned with knowing what type of marketing to use, how to use it, the purpose and frequency of usage, and so on.
Any CMO must be backed by a strong team of highly competent individuals who can act as their support system throughout. This is especially more relevant when partnering with an agency to coordinate your brand’s marketing efforts with. An agency like Team Pumpkin can make things all the more seamless when planning and delivering marketing campaigns. As one of the best digital marketing agencies present in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai, it presents itself as an exemplary option to CMOs looking for an agency to partner with for their brand.