Courtesy of Justin and Elise via Flickr
Over the past few months we have had many internal debates among Beyonders and also among the Next Fifteen brands discussing who is our real customer: the Chief Marketing Officer or the Chief Communications Officer?
In some senses this is a futile question because it varies depending on the company. However, it does highlight an important issue and one which puts into black and white the challenges presented by the changing media landscape we all face.
I am more convinced than ever that in the medium term, two distinct roles for the CCO and CMO will cease to exist and they will morph into one role perhaps the Chief Conversation Officer.
If I had to name a company that does a brilliant job of demonstrating an integrated approach, IBM is right up there with its Smarter Planet campaign. Maybe it is no coincidence that they no longer have both roles. Jon Iwata is head of IBM’s Corporate Communications and Marketing functions. As Tom Forenski discusses, he also happens to be one of the most highly respected marketing thinkers in the world of B2B.
If we think about the areas of traditional responsibility for marketing (brand and lead generation) and corp comms (corporate reputation), it soon becomes apparent as to why there may be a strong case for one role being responsible for both.
First, let’s consider the role of brand guardian. Brand is something that used to be 100 percent created and controlled by the company and its ad agency through its visual identity, tone and imagery. Last week, Gap spectacularly proved that perhaps companies are no longer as in control as they once were.
Next up, corporate reputation. This used to be the sole domain of the corporate comms function, but those days are gone. I met for lunch with a prospect the other day and they were telling me how their ad agency was doing all their reputation monitoring. Ad agency, corporate reputation monitoring.
Finally, lead generation. This is often viewed as the poor relation of the marketing industry or at least in the advertising world. You rarely meet an ad man who proudly proclaims that he works in the direct mail team. On the other hand, as a PR man, I am very excited by the work the Beyond team is doing around Earned Media Optimization in proving that earned media outreach delivers sales. Even lead generation is now part of the comms function.
As I discussed here, you only need to look at the mechanics of the Old Spice success to see that a large part of its success were down to combining elements of advertising and PR, yet further evidence of the lines between comms and marketing dissolving.
I am not sure if the role of CMO and CCO will morph into Chief Conversation Officer this year or next but I am sure it is only a matter of time before there is just one person in charge. What will his or her title be, I wonder? I suspect he or she will be called the CMO.