Chief Marketing Officers at Work - Softcover

Josh Steimle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1484219309 ISBN 13: 9781484219300

Publisher: Apress, 2016

Synopsis

This book contains 29 exclusive, in-depth interviews with chief marketing officers like Jeff Jones of Target, Linda Boff of GE, Brian Kenny of the Harvard Business School, Trish Mueller of The Home Depot, and Seth Farbman of Spotify.

This book will help C-level executives and others who interface and collaborate with marketing departments to understand how marketing drives growth at both startup and enterprise levels, and how marketing has moved from art to science. Trends in digital marketing, analytics, and marketing automation have pushed marketing to adopt data-driven approaches that would make a CFO's head swim. Marketing increasingly overlaps with business functions that were previously viewed as separate and distinct like sales, HR and recruiting, customer service, operations, and technology. This change in the status quo requires individuals in these roles to better understand how marketing works and how it can help them achieve their objectives, and the interviews in this book deliver those insights.

Who Should Read This Book?

• CMOs, other marketing executives, and aspiring marketing executives
• C-level executives
• Advertising execs, media planners, public relations professionals, digital marketers, and other marketing professionals
• Advertising agencies and marketing and PR firms
• Entrepreneurs
• All others who interface with marketing functions in their own roles

What the Reader Will Learn

• How chief marketing officers from leading corporations, nonprofits, government entities, and startups got to where they are today, what their job entails, and the skills they use to thrive in the CMO role
• How top marketing executives adapt to changes impacting their jobs in the areas of technology, language, and culture
• How the CMO works in an environment of ever-increasing collaboration where the roles of CEO, CTO, COO, and CMO are blurring
• How the CMO role is now dominated by data rather than gut decisions

Sample Questions

The interviews in this book all started with the same question, asking how the marketer being interview began his or her journey and the path that led to the role they now hold. Here is a sampling of other questions that formed the basis for these interviews: 

• What is your philosophy on building and managing a marketing team?
• How do you attract and retain top marketing talent?
• What do you look for in hires?
• Do you have any experience breaking down silos, and how can a CMO facilitate that?
• How do you make sure your goals are aligned with the overall organization?
• What kind of metrics do you focus on?
• How is globalization affecting marketing for you?
• How do you make sure you're in touch with your customers and understand their needs and wants?
• What organizations are you a member of and what value do you receive from them?
• What kind of data do you have access to and how do you use data in your role?
• What channels are you using to connect with your customers?
• How do you keep up with all the different marketing vendors, channels, and opportunities?
• How do you get through to consumers in a world of ad blockers where consumers have control?
• What do you think the future of marketing will be and how will it be different from today?
• What are some of the skills CMOs need that don't get enough attention?
• What are your thoughts on marketing to millennials?

If there was anything unexpected that resulted from these interviews, it was how tech-savvy these executives were. These individuals are hardly the types to engage in "Mad Men"-style marketing. They are driven by data, yet also aware of the risks posed by depending too much on that data. They are always learning and progressing. Now you have the opportunity to learn from them.

About this title

From the Author:

The reason that this book exists can be tracked to a specific time and date, and a single person. At 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, I entered a conference room at the Hong Kong offices of Nexusguard, an online security company. I'm a partner at MWI, a digital marketing agency, and we had already negotiated a contract for our services. I was there to get the contract signed and have a kickoff meeting to get things started.

I was introduced to various members of the marketing team, including Hope Frank, who informed me that as of the previous day, she was the company's new CMO. She said she was interested in talking to me about my agency's services, but no contracts would be signed that day. I walked out of that meeting wishing it had been scheduled a week before.

Several months later, my management team and I had a meeting to discuss creating client personas for our agency. I recalled the meeting with Hope and said, "CMOs can make or break deals with agencies like ours. We need to understand them better."Soon thereafter, I decided to write a book on the topic of "What CMOs need to know about digital marketing." But as I started doing research, I realized that while I knew plenty about digital marketing, I didn't know enough about CMOs. But I thought I knew where to learn more. A few years previously, my friend Peter Harris suggested I read Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator. That was the first book by Apress in the "At Work" series. I was also in the middle of succeeding volumes Venture Capitalists at Work and CTOs at Work and knew there were several other books.

I went to Amazon to buy "CMOs at Work," but I couldn't find it. I found it hard to believe the book didn't exist, so I kept searching, and that led me to the Apress website, where I verified that there was no such book. However, as I was looking over the Apress website, I stumbled onto a page inviting authors to propose and write additional titles for the "At Work" series. The thought struck me that I could write the "At Work" book on chief marketing officers and that this would be excellent preparation for writing the book on digital marketing. I sent a message to Apress, explained that I was a contributor to Forbes and I felt I had the network and means to contact CMOs and other top marketers to be part of this book; and I secured a contract.

In hindsight, I'm thankful that the meeting with Nexusguard happened when it did. Were it not for the impression losing that deal made on me, I would not have had the opportunity to interview 30 of the top marketing minds of our day, and this book would not exist.

And so my first thanks goes to Hope, who I kept in contact with, even after she killed our deal, and whom today I count as a friend. She was the first person I reached out to for help when I began writing this book. She has been influential in making introductions and providing input. In more ways than one, this book would not exist without her.

This book would also not exist were it not for the support and encouragement of many others. My thanks go to my wife, Brynn, who not only encouraged me in this endeavor but also assisted with editing and proofreading. To my mother, who taught me how to read and more importantly taught me to love reading by reading to me by my bedside at night when I was a small child. To my father, who kept up that tradition as I grew a bit older, reading Shakespeare and The Book of Mormon to me before I fell asleep. To my children, who had to bear with busy evenings and weekends that were the only time I could find to finish this book. To my siblings, who have always been interested and supportive. To my fourth grade teacher, Ms. Kuchinksi at the Anoakia school in Arcadia, California, who is the first person I recall, other than my parents, who enjoyed my writing.

My gratitude to my friend Cheryl Snapp Conner, without whose introduction to Forbes I would not have embarked on the writing career that gave me the confidence to write a book. Thanks also to Tom Post, my former editor at Forbes, Stephen Bronner at Entrepreneur, Gayle Kesten at CMO.com, and the many other editors and writers I've had the pleasure of working with.

A sincere "thank you" to the MWI team for their cheerleading and support, and especially my business partner, Corey Blake, for his leadership and management, which gave me peace of mind while working on this project.

I'd like to thank my transcriptionist Kristen Cassereau Ng, editor Megan Van Dyke, research assistant Cynthia de Jesus, and the entire Apress team, especially Robert Hutchinson and Rita Fernando.

Thanks also to those who provided endorsements for this work, and others who were an inspiration to start it and see it through including Michael Hyatt, Gary Vaynerchuk, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferriss, Stephen King, Jay Baer, Shane Snow, and many others. Thanks especially to all my friends who supported this and to all those I forgot to thank by name and will be mortified to have left out after this has already gone to print.

Finally, thanks to those who provided the content for this book. I didn't write this book, I merely had the pleasure of handling logistics. The real authors are those whose interviews are contained in these pages, who took time from their busy schedules to speak with me. I am forever grateful for your generosity. And thank you to the assistants and PR reps I worked with, many of whom went to great lengths to arrange these interviews.

About the Author:

Josh Steimle is the founder and CEO of MWI, a digital marketing agency. He has written over 200 articles for publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., Mashable, TechCrunch, and Time. Steimle is a TEDx speaker and sought-after presenter at marketing industry events. In 2016, Steimle was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as one of 50 Online Marketing Influencers to Watch, and Steimle is the 11th most mentioned and retweeted person on Twitter by CMOs, according to data from social media research firm Leadtail. Steimle has been interviewed for TV and radio appearances on topics related to technology and government policy. He consults with leaders in government on policies and practices related to entrepreneurship and startups. Steimle has held board positions at or otherwise worked with various nonprofit entities related to adoption, education, entrepreneurship, economics, and government policy. Steimle holds a masters of information systems management from Brigham Young University (BYU).

Steimle started his agency while a student at BYU, where he and his business partners won the BYU Business Plan Competition in 2001. Steimle and his partner were also jointly awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 by the Utah chapter of the Small Business Administration.

Steimle lives in Hong Kong with his wife and two children. He is a voracious reader, ultra trail runner, triathlete, and skateboarder. He is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served for two years as a full-time missionary for his church in Manaus, Brazil. He is fluent in English and Portuguese.

About this edition

• Publisher: Apress
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1484219309
• ISBN 13: 9781484219300
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 346