2009: The Importance of Strategic Marketing within a Corporate Organization

As companies strive to ensure future growth and profitability, they are turning to their marketing organizations to accelerate and guide their paths. Marketing is expected to provide a competitive advantage in shaping not just brand and corporate positioning but also in driving corporate strategy and setting the agenda for innovation and growth.

This is as true in organizations for which marketing is a relatively mature discipline as it is for companies that have recently adopted a more strategic approach to marketing. This is occurring at a very precarious time for marketers, who are simultaneously witnessing fundamental change to the channels, tools and measures that have defined their craft for generations.

Strategic Marketing is becoming a more critical and disciplined function which is reflected by the emerging role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) as one of the most important, dynamic and yet misunderstood positions within the corporation. Many companies have appointed top marketers, with nearly 50% of Fortune 1000 firms saying that they have a CMO in place (Source: Association of National Advertisers and Booz Allen Hamilton), but while studies indicate that the CMO role is viewed as highly influential, much has been made of the relatively short tenure CMOs are granted and the significant costs and disruption this turnover causes.

It is essential to understand the skills, experiences, and professional and personal competencies required for marketing leaders to be successful. Companies need to realize that while the title of Chief Marketing Officer is becoming increasingly common, the role itself can vary dramatically depending on the company, its management structure, the relative importance of marketing to its business model and the marketplace challenges it faces.

Strategic marketers build business plans from the perspective of core constituents: the customer, the channel or the consumer. They are business drivers who critically assess constituents’ needs, the competitive environment and the company’s own competencies. They are champions of the company’s brand value and play a pivotal role in leveraging this to the highest advantage. They possess both functional expertise as well as a broad and disciplined business perspective. Fundamentally, they help discover new channels, products and services that fuel growth and differentiate their company in the marketplace.