Marketing Resolutions large resized 600
Well, 2014 is here in full swing. What better time to set some new marketing goals? Here, seven top CMOs share their key resolutions for the year ahead.
1. Use Marketing to Help Your Customers
Beth Comstock, GE’s long-time CMO, resolves to help GE customers “run their businesses better” by “delivering outcomes via big data and analytics” and encourage “more collaboration and partnership built on community.” Adds Comstock, “We recently expanded our partnership with Quirky.com, which is a good example of the kinds of partnerships in this area.”
2. Focus on the Fundamentals
In her first year as CMO at Jenny Craig, Leesa Eichberger, perhaps not surprisingly, is committed to reinvigorating the brand from the ground up. Noting that Jenny Craig “hasn’t been resonating with today’s audience to the extent we’d like it to,” Eichberger resolves “to keep a laser focus on the fundamentals: clear and consistent positioning, tight targeting and trackable results.”
3. Find Big Uses for Big Data
Raj Rao, VP of Global eTransformation at 3M, shares a commitment with Comstock to use big data, seeing it as a way “to transform how we play in alternate e-commerce channels like Rakuten, Alibaba and Amazon.com.” As he further explains, “3M needs to drive new revenue streams by revisiting its business models to capture revenue streams that are not serviceable in our current distribution and retail channels.”
4. Swing for the Fences
Kyle Schlegel, CMO at Hillerich & Bradsby, offers a 24-month vision as he completes “the re-launch of the iconic Louisville Slugger brand through the launch of a game-changing 2015 product lineup.” Schlegel hit upon this long-term perspective naturally, given the brand’s 130-year “legendary” history, while also noting his need to break “any relevance barriers that may have been created over the past 5-10 years.”
5. Seek a Consistent Marketing Framework
After being in a similar role at Cablevision, Time Warner Cable Business Class CMO Stephanie Anderson knows well the challenges of marketing to small businesses. Having seen others in the industry bounce from idea to idea, Anderson offers a more steadfast approach: “Top of the list for 2014: be consistent, relevant, and ‘present’ with our customers and prospects.”
6. Think Broadly About Your Business
Elisabeth Charles, CMO of Petco, has the unenviable challenge of fending off both entrenched brick-and-mortar competitors and e-commerce upstarts, who are all competing for share of wallet among finicky pet parents. In the face of this competitive hydra, Charles resolves to “develop a clearer enterprise strategy and place greater priority around digital customer engagement.”
7. When in Doubt, KISS
Jonathan Becher, CMO of SAP, faces a myriad of challenges running a global marketing operation that supports hundreds of countries, vertical markets and product solutions. In the face of this potential complexity, Becher shares the following with all who will listen: “My top new year’s resolution is ‘simplify, simplify, simplify.’”