There is an ever-expanding list of c-suite marketing titles which represent the evolution and elevation of the lead marketing role, as well as the broadening of marketing’s remit within a business.
Alongside or in place of the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), we now see CRO, CDO, CCO, CPO and CMO (Revenue, Digital, Customer, Product, Strategy and Media Officers) as well as the more common Commercial Director.
Job titles are an emotive subject. Candidates looking for their next role want to feel that their new job title reflects appropriate progression and elevation in their career. And businesses need to strike a balance between attracting the best talent and recruiting at the right level.
Historically, the lead marketing role within an organisation would have been Sales & Marketing Director. In most cases, this would have been a senior management role and rarely sat on the board. We now not only see lead marketers on the board, so their job title must reflect this, but we also see more specialisms incorporated within the top roles.
Chief Digital Officer, for example, is becoming increasingly common. In 2012, analysts from technology research firm Gartner predicted that the CDO role “will prove to be the most exciting strategic role in the decade ahead” and 25% of organisations will have someone in that role by 2015. For organisations that have both a CMO and a CDO, the appropriate division of responsibility is a much debated issue, which we will look at shortly. But the point here is that marketing channels, consumer behaviour and the role of marketing within organisations have changed drastically. Logically, therefore, the Sales and Marketing Director job title doesn’t now fit most senior marketing roles as it doesn’t fully cover the omni-channel world in which we operate today and the broadening of the marketing department’s responsibilities.
What do all the different roles mean? Fundamentally, as already mentioned, they represent the expanding and elevating role of marketing leaders. C-suite roles should describe board-level positions but we have seen some smaller growth tech companies advertise c-level roles that aren’t actually on the board. This is where a bit of confusion can creep in, but for the most part board level status is to be expected. If recruiting a c-level marketer that is not board level, organisations need to be clear on progression and the level of influence within the organisation to attract the best (and right) candidates.
In terms of other industry trends, the CMO title was initially most common in Blue Chip and FTSE 250 organisations, but now SMEs are increasingly recruiting at this level. Chief Revenue Officer is a relatively new title but it’s gaining traction as businesses in the UK mirror the organisational structures of their Silicon Valley counterparts where CROs are more prevalent. High growth organisations in the UK are positioning their marketing leaders into roles that will facilitate the company’s growth and maintain a focus on the bottom line, hence the inclusion of the word revenue in the job title. CROs are more common in B2B organisations, whereas, logically, the CCO tends to be within consumer businesses.
In addition to industry considerations, the choice of c-level title is also down to positioning. How does the organisation want to place their marketing leader and what are their strategic objectives, internal reporting lines and the composition of the rest of the board?
If organisations don’t take all these factors into account, then issues can arise with the interaction between various roles. As Gartner predicted, many larger organisations now have a CDO, and some have this in addition to a CMO, sometimes also a CIO. Who owns what in this instance? We have seen some of the most successful marketing strategies implemented through collaboration between these two or three roles, but only where the core skills of each are utilised. For example, the CMO should own the campaign aspects of all marketing activities, but digital transformation itself must sit with the CDO/CIO. Other organisations choose, for example, a CDO on the board with a Marketing Director or Head of Marketing reporting into them, this perhaps creates a clearer reporting line and one point of contact for final decisions, but depending on the type/industry of the organisation, the strategic input of a CMO could be missed.
Going forward, we predict that more and more organisations will place a marketing leader on their board, and a broader spectrum of C-suite marketing roles will continue to emerge to suit different and evolving customer demographics and sectors. The CRO position is potentially one that will experience the highest proportional increase. Although it is currently not as common in the UK, marketing leader job descriptions increasingly incorporate P&L management and marketing activities continue to become more performance focused and lead into topline growth. A financial focus for marketing leaders will be more common – something that we are already seeing in Silicon Valley and it is likely the UK will follow suit, lead by our burgeoning tech hub and high profile disruptive brands.
Simon Bassett is the Managing Director of marketing headhunters, tml Partners.
tml Partners specialise in placing CMOs, Marketing Directors and their management teams.
