Skip to main content

Marketing Transformation: Changing the Role of Today's CIO

6/24/2015
Leading consumer goods (CG) companies are embracing a new vision for marketing. The evolution of the digitally connected consumer lies at the core, dramatically changing the dynamic between brand and consumer relationships and transactions. Digital has reached a tipping point, with digital ‘omnivores’ – driven by millennials globally – expecting instant access anywhere, anytime. Seventy-five percent of consumers cite that information on social channels influenced shopping behavior and brand loyalty, and digital disruption is creating new forms and access, significantly changing the traditional CG channel landscape. 

The CIO is emerging as a key leader in driving the digital and marketing transformation required for consumer goods companies to win in today’s digital marketplace.

The top marketing transformations facing CG companies today

Digital is driving three major marketing transformations. These are fundamentally changing how CG companies win in the marketplace, and how organizations work across functions to deliver winning consumer engagement, experiences and channel execution.

The first transformation is the movement toward more personalized consumer engagement and experience. The CG marketing model is rapidly changing from one-way, ‘broadcast’ messages, focused on product, to targeted, interactive engagement, driven by tailored content and promotions. Increasingly, consumers expect to be a part of a brand’s ‘story making’, experience.  And, consumers expect offerings and promotions — in store (via sensors, mobile apps) and out of store – to reflect their preferences, usage and shopping behaviors.

The second transformation is need to build connectivity into all aspects of marketing, driven by social media and our 24/7 world. This requires harnessing social communities to build relationships and foster consumer advocacy, using content, gamification and incentives to create and reinforce brand experience and loyalty. And, as CG channel proliferation continues, marketers must orchestrate a consistent, brand enhancing shopping experience across channels.

The third transformation is the use of data science and analytics for insights to inform targeting and engagement solutions, improve marketing spend effectiveness, optimize channel execution and commercial investment and facilitate ‘real time’ decision making and responsiveness in the marketplace.   Data science and analytics helps create performance management tools to enable agile markers, who can quickly adapt messaging, programs and spend based on market performance.

New ways of marketing are changing the role of IT

Transforming marketing requires new technologies. New platforms to enable new media models including surgical targeting (DMP), marketing campaign automation and digital asset management. New mobile / web /e-commerce platforms to deliver winning channel execution. And the contextual architecture to provide data, images, video, and transactions dynamically — based not only on who consumers are, but also where they are, what they’ve done, and what they’re likely to want next.
   
Increasingly, CG marketers are recognizing the need to leverage these technologies. IT is emerging as a key partner to Marketing and as leaders in Marketing Innovation, spearheading efforts to build an intuitive enterprise – driven by new technologies, new ways of working and enterprise wide data and platform integration.
 
Today’s CIO can drive marketing transformation

Successful marketing transformation requires CIO and CMO collaboration, which is on the rise. Leading CG CIO’s recognize the sense of urgency, and proactively drive a shared vision and greater collaboration with their marketing partners, changing the way the organization works together to deliver winning marketing and channel execution. A recent Deloitte study analyzed over 54,500 pieces of social media content mentioning CIO’s and CMO’s. The study revealed the following drivers of successful CMO-CIO collaboration: 
  1. A mutual understanding of evolving roles – the CIO as a digital leader, the CMO as leveraging technology for insight and engagement
  2. Putting the consumer and consumer experience at the core of decision making
  3. Expanded governance and shared KPIs.  For example, establishing separate marketing data and technology governance to balance marketing’s need for speed with IT’s need for compliance, security, privacy and integration
  4. Development of cross functional teams, which enable organizations to fill talent gaps and develop new skills in real time
 
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JLK_Deloitte.pngJennifer Lacks Kaplan is a Principal at Deloitte and the Marketing Transformation practice leader for the Consumer Products sector. She works with companies to develop and execute winning growth strategies and marketing transformation, helping to build, integrate and enable new digital and marketing capabilities. Prior to Deloitte, Jennifer was a Senior Partner at Monitor Group. Jennifer has over twenty years of experience serving the world’s leading consumer goods and retail companies.
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds