David Aaker on the Challenges a Successful Chief Marketing Officer Faces

Philippine Daily Insider, October 24, 2006, by Dr. Ned Roberto and Ardy Roberto

The search is on for the best chief marketing officers in the Philippines. The Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) has just closed its nominations phase for this year’s batch of Agora Awardees to be recognized this November. On the other hand, The Young Market Masters Awards (YMMA) foundation is still accepting nominations for the best and brightest young chief marketing officers below the age of 35. (Visit www.youngmarketmasters.com for details.)

So now the questions that are being thrown at us recently go like this: What will it take to become a successful chief marketing officer (CMO), not only today, but in the future? What challenges will the CMO have to face and overcome?

Continuing our series of consulting world renowned marketing gurus to answer your questions, this time we turn to Prof. David A. Aaker, one of the senior MRx-ers idols. Aaker now serves as vice chair of Prophet Brand Strategy, a San Francisco consulting firm founded on the basis of Aakers brand principles by two of his former students, Scott Galloway and Ian Chaplin, both from the M.B.A. class of 1992. He is also an advisor to Dentsu Worldwide (the world’s largest ad agency), professor emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and a globally recognized authority on brands and brand management. Aaker has published more than 100 articles and twelve books, including Strategic Market Management, Managing Brand Equity and Building Strong Brands. Professor Aaker will be a featured speaker, along with brand gurus Jack Trout, Martin Lindstrom and Faith Popcorn, at the Global Brand Forum (www.globalbrandforum.org) in Singapore this November 2006.

David Aaker

The marketing function of the future will continue to be polarized. Chief Marketing Officers within firms that view marketing as tactical and who are preoccupied with short-term financials will struggle to have real impact, “David says. “Other CMOs, increasingly, I believe, the majority, will elevate marketing to be a visible driver of success by being a strategic partner within the firm. In the latter group, the CMO and his or her team will have been successful at addressing five challenges. CMOs of the future will successfully address 5 challenges:

Clutter. First, they will find ways to generate home run brand -building programs that break out of the clutter even at the sacrifice of schedules and budgets. This will involve creative thinking, organizational tolerance for change, and talent in execution. It will also involve the capability of drawing upon a wide spectrum of resources, including the use of influentials in the marketplace, guerrilla marketing, leveraging the Internet and connecting with the customer activities and values.

Growth through business development. Second, marketing will be the driver behind achieving growth through business development, a priority for most CEOs. This also will require creativity and a willingness to suspend boundaries. The goal should be for the CEO to look to marketing for the development of growth platforms, whether from developing and leveraging brand assets or finding new markets.

Building strong customer relationships. Third, CMOs will find ways to truly connect to the customer by building relationship-based loyalty going beyond product-centered and product-driven approaches. A strong relationship can have a variety of sources, such as organizational associations (e.g., innovation, the environment, customer concern or high standards), the delivery of emotional benefits or creation of active customer dialogues.

Creating synergy. Fourth, the brand will be managed across the product and geographic silos in order to allocate marketing investment optimally, drive brand consistency, leverage cross-market insights and data, and create synergy by leveraging effective programs. The route will usually be to create, expand or energize central marketing departments, without which the firm, at best, will be under a severe competitive disadvantage.

Detecting trends and ensuring relevance. Finally, these CMOs will ensure relevance. When competing in dynamic markets, the most strategic challenge is to make sure that the firm produces offerings that customers want to buy. The need is to detect and evaluate trends and develop responsive offerings supported by brand assets.

In a growing number of businesses, marketing will have more of a strategic role. That means the marketing group must have the skills and talent to think strategically and the credibility to influence the CEO to think in terms of building branded assets rather than immediate sales. It’s not an easy task, for sure.

If you have any questions for David Aaker or the rest of the Global Brand Forum (GBF) faculty made up of Jack Trout, Faith Popcorn and Martin Lindstrom, email at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net and well make sure to forward them. MarketingRx can also ask your questions when we meet them at the GBF in Singapore. For more info on the GBF visit www.globalbrandforum.org or for more info call 813-2732.