AI. Machine Learning. Augmented Reality. Today’s CMO has to be both artist and technician to keep up with all the new tools that are coming down the line. Unfortunately, this marriage of technology with creativity often feels forced. If it’s not done properly, the tech/marketing combo can seem disjointed from the overall brand story. Not so with Australian winemaker, 19…
Leadership, whether you’re the CEO, chief marketing officer or chief financial officer, can typically be boiled down to three fundamental tasks: Set the vision, build the team and allocate the resources. Arguably, all three are equally important, yet in this CMO-centric column, we’ve focused more on the first and third, closely examining the strategic and budgetary choices that modern marketers…
There are two brand videos below. Each is only a few minutes long. Both use emotion to tell a story. But I think you will find that one of the two clearly stands out as a better story – and consequently a better brand story overall – for that company. (Warning: Spoiler Alert) Of course, it’s subjective but I’m guessing…
When Jonathan Beamer took over as CMO of Monster nine months ago, he found a brand that, despite “ten years of neglect” from both a product and marketing perspective, “was still one of the strongest in the job search category.” He credits this residual strength to Monster’s original insight, “that people desperately want fulfilling work,” which remains as true today…
The other day, I was speaking with storytelling guru and “father of modern branding,” David Aaker. One of the best ways to create a “signature story” for your brand, he said, is to magnify the problem that your product or service addresses. As David’s advice was kicking around my cranium, I came across the story of cloud backup and data…
From the moment a new chief marketing officer starts a job, the expectations for improved marketing performance are outrageously high. The CEO is looking for simultaneous upticks in brand metrics and demand generation. The head of sales wants leads that almost close themselves. The HR chief is expecting instant improvements in Glassdoor ratings and an influx of highly qualified recruits….
You don’t get to be a CMO by being afraid of adding yet another responsibility to your plate. Successful marketing programs often touch so many aspects of a business from customer experience to employee recruiting, investor relations to product development, that it is easy to imagine your above average CMO already being stretched beyond capacity. So, it is with some…
Just about 50 years ago, futurist Alvin Toffler predicted that as our lives became increasingly dominated by technology, we’d feel an increased desire for human interactions. This “high-tech/high-touch” phenomenon is embodied in the rise of social networks, both of the virtual and physical variety (just look at the increase in associations and trade show attendance). It also helps explain the…
There is probably a point in one’s life when you stop having the dream about showing up late and unprepared for your final exam. I’m still waiting. And it doesn’t help when cognoscenti like Brent Adamson, principal executive advisor at Gartner, challenge the very definition of marketing—let alone the way most business-to-business brands approach the customer acquisition process. Of course,…
Despite all the advancements in lead generation, lead scoring and automated lead nurturing, the age-old tension between marketing and sales is alive and well. CMOs still complain that sales can’t keep to the script and close the deal, while sales directors still complain that many of the leads they get from marketing are useless garbage because the targeting and messaging…