A CMO (chief marketing officer) is a C-level corporate executive accountable for activities in a corporation that have to do with creating, communicating and delivering offerings that have value for purchasers, purchasers or enterprise partners.
A CMO's major mission is to facilitate development and increase sales by developing a complete marketing plan that will promote brand recognition and help the organization achieve a competitive advantage. In order to achieve their own goals and successfully form their firms' public profile, CMOs should be distinctive leaders and assume the voice of the shopper across the company.
Chief marketing officers typically report to the CEO or chief working officer (COO) and hold advanced degrees in each business and marketing. A CMO who has a powerful background in information technology may hold the job title chief marketing technologist (CMT). In some bigger organizations, nevertheless, those positions are separate and the CMT reports to the CMO.
Chief marketing officer job description
More specifically, the CMO is the executive in command of growing the strategy for corporate advertising and branding, as well as buyer outreach. As the senior most marketing position within the organization, she or he oversees these features throughout all company product lines and geographies.
It is the CMO's job to:
understand the company's position in the marketplace, using traditional strategies, as well as newer technologies equivalent to data analytics;
determine how and where the company ought to be positioned sooner or later;
develop the strategy to drive the organization to that future market position; and
execute on that strategy.
The CMO's work is anticipated to produce top-line outcomes, with marketing efforts raising the model awareness, recognition and loyalty that will finally lead to elevated sales.
As such, the CMO is expected to work closely (or in some organizations even lead) the sales unit.
Wage and pay construction
Based on PayScale, total compensation for a U.S.-primarily based CMO ranges from almost $85,000 to about $315,000.
The CMO's experience level and the geographic location of the position affect the pay, as does the size of the organization.
PayScale places the median compensation for a CMO within the United States at $170,000.
CMOs make that money by means of an annual wage, individual bonuses, profit sharing and commission.
Chief marketing officer roles and responsibilities
The CMO has a breadth of roles and responsibilities to help its total mission. These embrace:
overseeing the development and placement of the artistic elements that position the corporate within the marketplace;
researching and assessing the market and the company's position in it;
supervising or collaborating with sales to turn marketing insights into sales; and
directing the corporate's public relations efforts, or working in conjunction with inner and exterior public relations groups to create a coordinated message.
Why the CMO position has gained prominence
The technology advancements of the twenty first century have elevated the importance of the CMO position in lots of organizations. The internet, the ubiquity of mobile computing, the internet of things, analytics, artificial intelligence and social media platforms all have created new ways to reach customers and understand their thoughts on products, providers and brands.
In addition they have given a new, a lot more prominent voice to consumers who can instantaneously broadcast their opinions to potentially hundreds, if not millions, of people.
At the similar time, CMOs and their groups are able to faucet those technologies to reach and influence customers, position their products and problem competitors on the similar speed and scale as the customers.
As it has been with other C-suite executives in this new technology-pushed enterprise paradigm, the CMO should collaborate much more extensively with his or her executive friends as a way to keep pace. CMOs additionally have to be capable of adaptation and innovation, as applied sciences evolve and markets shift in response.
Qualifications
CMOs, who can also have the title of vice president of sales and marketing, generally have at the least a bachelor's degree in marketing (though an MBA is commonly favorred, if not also required). They typically have no less than a decade of experience in marketing and/or advertising and multiple years of expertise in a managerial role.
They're expected to have robust leadership skills, expertise in project development, excellent communication skills and a high level of enterprise acumen.
In addition, the CMO function as we speak requires a high level of technical aptitude to maximise the tools and leverage the social media platforms which are essential to marketing efforts.
For instance, CMOs are anticipated to supervise the corporate's use of analytics platforms to understand buyer preferences, priorities and patterns particularly via person-generated media and the way that insight can drive sales.
They're also anticipated to direct marketing campaigns and buyer outreach through existing -- and emerging -- social media sites, as well as via traditional channels.
To that end, CMOs should be highly inquisitive and progressive, able to establish emerging applied sciences that would disrupt their business or trade and likewise then able to answer that by directing his or her C-suite colleagues on the way to reposition the corporate in light of that change.