3 CMO Priorities to Drive Integration

In today's hyper-competitive business environment, it is imperative for brands to develop enagaging relationships with their customers to drive incrementality.

In order to do so, the CMO must be the driving force behind focusing the entire enterprise on integration. This is not easy; the simple truth is that most organizations have not been built for today’s connected, digital, always-on world. But visionary CMOs don’t look at this climate as a challenge. The need for integration and cross-enterprise collaboration presents today’s CMO with the biggest opportunity to take a greater leadership role within the organization since the golden age of mass media advertising.

In order to be successful, there are three key areas in which CMOs must lead the focusing of their brand and organization to achieve marketing success and internal harmony. Doing so will create a single view of customer interactions and center the organization’s focus on the customer to achieve marketing success.

Integrating Your Marketing and Technology Functions

Sixty-nine percent of CMOs recognized the need to align with IT.¹ The CMO and CIO must be strong partners with an integrated vision and understanding of the organization’s marketing technology ecosystem.² With the speed of digital transformation happening in today’s connected world, the CMO and CIO must together tackle a number of priorities, including: big data, cloud capabilities, cyber security, the “Internet of Things,” wearables, social/mobile/omnichannel, and effective content. An organization cannot succeed without the CMO and CIO working in tandem.

An Integrated Customer Experience

Over the lastdecade, organizations feverishly worked to deploy solutions with siloed, channel-specific approaches. Mobile. Social. E-commerce. Back-end systems. In-store systems. Separate teams—with separate approaches—have traditionally developed each of these. As a technologist, I can admit that for too long we were focused on functionality, not the customer. But today, with most customers fully connected to many or all of these channels, the organization’s mindset MUST shift to a customer-centric view. Customers want and expect integrated experiences. Recognition, personalization, and efficient marketing start with an integrated vision between marketing and technology.

A Holistic and Integrated Customer Data View

In order for an organization to achieve an integrated customer experience, the customer’s data must be consolidated. The 360-degree view of a customer is not a new concept, but in order to achieve it, many organizations will have to break silos. According to Forrester, only 46 percent of marketers agree that their organizations have a vision to create a single view of all customer interactions3. The CMO and CIO must partner to break the silos of data separation.

With 84 percent of CMOs feeling unprepared to deal with the onslaught of data, the CMO must look to the CIO for help4. Concurrently, both the CMO and CIO need agency and vendor partners who offer deep expertise in both of their skillsets. Marketing success requires integration. Integration at the executive level can be a powerful first step in breaking down the silos to allow the enterprise to focus on developing a holistic customer experience driven by a consolidated view of data.

¹http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/us-en/insight-cmo-cio-alignment-digital-summary/Accenture-Interactive-Cutting-Across-the-CMO-CIO-Divide-pdf.pdf
²http://olson1to1.com/2015/01/12/enhancing-customer-experiences-marketing-technology-optimization/
³https://www.forrester.com/staticassets/marketing/blogs/Forrester-CMO-CIO-Partnership-2015.png
⁴http://searchcio.techtarget.com/feature/Among-C-level-relationships-CIO-CMO-proving-key-to-business-success

About the Author

Jim Mattson brings over 18 years of enterprise technology experience to his current role of leading the technology function for Olson 1to1. The team is responsible for envisioning, architecting, delivering, and operating omni-channel enterprise technology solutions that support Olson 1to1 clients. Prior to joining Olson, Jim led technology and architecture teams at other marketing agencies, delivering technology solutions to Fortune 500 clients. Jim has an MS in Software Engineering from the University of St. Thomas.