CMO COUNCIL - MARKETING OUTLOOK 2011©: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As a North American Board member I am pleased to share an abridged version of the CMO Council’s 2011 Marketing Outlook. You can find the complete report @ http://www.cmocouncil.org/reports_resources.php

It’s been a long, tough road for marketing since the onset of global financial

upheaval in 2008. However, the state of marketing in 2011 is much more a

by product of an even longer path of transformation, as the role, mandate and

function of marketing has shifted, and the actual role of chief marketing officers

has changed, ushering in a new era for the function and office.

Key among the themes that will prove to be the hallmarks of the year: integration,

alignment and visibility. Marketers are looking to bind the individual tactical execution

elements that have come to represent a host of randomly selected activities into a fully

integrated multi-channel strategy around business goals that drive business forward.

While phrases like “campaign integration,” “multi-channel” or even “converged

channel” are more readily seeping into marketing conversations, through tough

times, marketers slipped backwards into an age of disconnected programs

and pilots, creating an uneven patchwork of executable tasks. Random Acts of

Marketing emerged as the fast-moving digital landscape forced many marketing

teams to deploy programs from fan pages to apps, only to realize that few, if any,

of those these points of engagement were connected.

Moving into 2011, several business and market forces are influencing marketing

budgets more than other factors. While 37 percent of respondents still feel the sting

of flat or tight budgets of years past, a growing number (24 percent) see a need

to improve digital media and online marketing effectiveness, likely in response to

increased spend and operational allocations made in that direction over the past

few years. Another high response on the list of budget influencers is the slower,

more complex selling cycle, which is increasing the need to better provision the

sales pipeline and to reach a more fragmented, difficult to reach market.

After supporting too many Random Acts of Marketing in past years that did not

effectively drive business forward, senior management’s most frequent mandate

among survey respondents was:

1.      Drive top-line growth and expand (or at least retain) market share.

Rounding out the top mandates from executive management are:

2.      Improved operational efficiency

3.      Advancing the go-to-market process.

Management’s interest in maintaining market share highlights the confusing

lack of “stress” among marketers over customer retention. In fact, of the top

five senior management mandates, two highlight the demand for marketers to

develop solid customer retention strategies to retain market share and minimize

churn. Perhaps more marketers should elevate retention on their priority lists.

To fulfill those major directives, marketers singled out several key operational

and organizational changes they plan to undertake in 2011.

1. develop and measure the new Scial Media medium
2. Ongoing effort to improve alignment and integration with sales.
3. Expand field marketing operations and further develop the sales support role.

Regarding budget allocation, marketers intend to put their money behind those mandates:

1. 50 percent will increase investments in new product and program launches (likely to spark new sales opportunities) 
2. 44 percent will invest in lead generation and qualification initiatives
3. 31 percent will invest in regional development.
4. 39 percent intend to invest in retention and monetization strategies directed at existing customer groups.

http://www.cmocouncil.org/reports_resources.php