Chief Marketing Officer

I think this is an evolving role in healthcare. Mention CMO to most people and they will think you are talking about the Chief Medical Officer. In some industries this has spun into several roles whose titles might include Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Experience Officer or some other title.

Apparently, this is one of the shortest tenured jobs with CMOs in the top-100 consumer branded companies staying in the role for 23 months (compared to 54 months for CEOs). This is according to SpencerStuart as talked about in a Fast Company article from June 2007.

“Today’s marketing chiefs are shape-shifting beasts who grasp not only advertising and promotions but also public relations, IT, finance, manufacturing, customer service, and branding across global markets.” (Greg Welch in The Most Dangerous Job in Business – Fast Company, June 2007, pg. 34)

Of course, everyone has an opinion on marketing. Think about how much fun it is to brainstorm brand positioning or a new tagline.

With a down economy, marketing faces a different type of scrutiny. Often in a short-sighted way, but it is an easier area to reduce than IT, operations, sales, etc. So, what will a tight economy bring…a focus on ROI based marketing with a continued emphasis on marketing analytics and reporting. The traditional, fun marketing of the movies where it is all about glitz and TV advertisements won’t go away, but I think you will continue to see a more pragmatic focus on what the company gets for the time and money spent on different programs.