This book contains 29 exclusive, in-depth interviews with chief
marketing officers like Jeff Jones of Target, Linda Boff of GE,
Brian Kenny of the Harvard Business School, Trish Mueller of The
Home Depot, and Seth Farbman of Spotify.
This book will help C-level executives and others who interface
and collaborate with marketing departments to understand how
marketing drives growth at both startup and enterprise levels,
and how marketing has moved from art to science. Trends in
digital marketing, analytics, and marketing automation have
pushed marketing to adopt data-driven approaches that would make
a CFO's head swim. Marketing increasingly overlaps with business
functions that were previously viewed as separate and distinct
like sales, HR and recruiting, customer service, operations, and
technology. This change in the status quo requires individuals in
these roles to better understand how marketing works and how it
can help them achieve their objectives, and the interviews in
this book deliver those ins.
Who Should Read This Book?
* CMOs, other marketing executives, and aspiring marketing
executives
* C-level executives
* Advertising execs, media planners, public relations
professionals, digital marketers, and other marketing
professionals
* Advertising agencies and marketing and PR firms
* Entrepreneurs
* All others who interface with marketing functions in their own
roles
What the Reader Will Learn
* How chief marketing officers from leading corporations,
nonprofits, government entities, and startups got to where they
are today, what their job entails, and the skills they use to
thrive in the CMO role
* How top marketing executives adapt to changes impacting their
jobs in the areas of technology, language, and culture
* How the CMO works in an environment of ever-increasing
collaboration where the roles of CEO, CTO, COO, and CMO are
blurring
* How the CMO role is now dominated by data rather than gut
decisions
Sample Questions
The interviews in this book all started with the same question,
asking how the marketer being interview began his or her journey
and the path that led to the role they now hold. Here is a
sampling of other questions that formed the basis for these
interviews:
* What is your philosophy on building and managing a marketing
team?
* How do you attract and retain top marketing talent?
* What do you look for in hires?
* Do you have any experience breaking down silos, and how can a
CMO facilitate that?
* How do you make sure your goals are aligned with the overall
organization?
* What kind of metrics do you focus on?
* How is globalization affecting marketing for you?
* How do you make sure you're in touch with your customers and
understand their needs and wants?
* What organizations are you a member of and what value do you
receive from them?
* What kind of data do you have access to and how do you use data
in your role?
* What channels are you using to connect with your customers?
* How do you keep up with all the different marketing vendors,
channels, and rtunities?
* How do you get through to consumers in a world of ad blockers
where consumers have control?
* What do you think the future of marketing will be and how will
it be different from today?
* What are some of the skills CMOs need that don't get enough
attention?
* What are your thoughts on marketing to millennials?
If there was anything unexpected that resulted from these
interviews, it was how tech-savvy these executives were. These
individuals are hardly the types to engage in "Mad Men"-style
marketing. They are driven by data, yet also aware of the risks
posed by depending too much on that data. They are always
learning and progressing. Now you have the rtunity to learn
from them.