What is a Chief Marketing Officer?

What is a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)? What qualifications do they need? What experience? And what sphere of influence should they have?

It seems no one is quite sure.

The CMO Council is investigating the issue and will release the Define & Align the CMO final report in early April.

According to the CMO Council: "... all the hyperbole - combined with a real lack of definition and a failure to align qualifications with business expectations - threatens the very viability of the Chief Marketing Officer as a meaningful and critical position."

The body argues that many boards create a CMO position for the wrong reasons, like fixing a broken marketing organisation, or to carry out poorly defined strategies or somehow demonstrate a return.

"Exacerbating this is the tendency on the part of senior executives and recruiters to give CMO titles and compensation packages to marketers skilled primarily in managing marketing programmes on a tactical level, and then expect them to provide long-range vision and contribute in the boardroom," it says.

Then they grow impatient when CMOS don't deliver results fast enough.

"The result is a poorly articulated definition of the role of the CMO, unsuccessful alignment of the position within the organisation, and predictably a continued high turnover rate of those who fill the position," says the CMO Council.

"What our research bears out and amplifies, is this: candidates for the position of Chief Marketing Officer must not be evaluated primarily on their skill at creating hype or their attributes, expertise, and experience in traditional marketing functions and disciplines.

"Rather, to effectively align within any successful, forward-looking organisation, the position must be occupied by an executive who can come in and help drive company growth, lead in innovation, provide strategic vision, champion the customer experience and be fluent in the nuances and particular characteristics of the company's product development or service delivery models."

The body quotes the New York Post which wrote that "as hard as corporate America is on chief executives, it's even harder on chief marketing officers."

According to the article, "Whenever a company faces severe cutbacks, stiff competition or sluggish sales, it seems the CMO is the first to go."

It then listed a number of high profile marketing heads who have been axed in the last few months:

•·        HSBC's Peter Stringham left after clashing with top management.

•·        Volkswagen CMO Kerri Martin quit not long after overseeing edgy, new ads for the German automaker.

•·        Struggling retailer, Gap, axed its head of marketing, Kyle Andrew, before firing CEO Paul Pressler.

•·        Wal-Mart switched CMO John Fleming to a merchandising job after his strategy to target more upscale shoppers failed.

The article suggests that the high rate of turnover is nothing new to Madison Avenue, where a CMO departure usually leads to a change in ad agencies.

"I can't think of a high-profile chief marketing officer that hasn't been fired at least once," the article quotes David Gallagher, a managing partner at executive search firm Boyden, as saying.

The Post article concluded: "Studies from executive-search firm Spencer Stuart show their tenure is short and getting shorter. Last year, the average CMO lasted 23.2 months on the job, down from 23.5 in 2005 and 23.6 in 2004. And, it's expected to get even shorter. Along with their growing and complicated list of tasks, CMOs are increasingly being called upon to save companies in need of a quick fix.

"They're looking for a change agent, someone who can invigorate the organisation," according to Gallagher. "When their goals aren't met or their campaigns are less than successful, the CMOs are the ones with the target on their back."

For more information visit ww.cmocouncil.org