Way Beyond Marketing: CMOS are the new “Everything”

The word “crisis” in Chinese comprises two characters – one representing misadventure or affliction. The other? Opportunity. Minus the etymological exactness, the sentiment can’t be any more accurate than today. A crisis makes way for new choices. New choices mean newer stances – significantly for businesses to scope new possibilities and gauge customer responses. Nevertheless, it might sound business-faced, but post-crisis marketing will no longer rely on yesterday’s blueprints.

More than 75 percent of CMOs now face the fact that old potions of success are futile when compared to today’s mix of disruption. The new breed of goal-getters is met with opportunities to win, time and time again, by delivering more relevant customer experiences.

Amidst all of this, a CMO can’t afford to assume the responsibilities of a mere marketer who draws upon past performance of ROI-proven guerrilla marketing, or simply be a good brand advocate. Their boards demand greatness from them—expecting top marketers to be customer champions, frontline defenders of the brand, stewards of internal morale and culture, and drivers of company growth initiatives. In simpler words, they are everything that they weren’t a few years back. Hence the need to master areas previously not assigned to their roles.

A leading proponent of this philosophy is Michael Mendenhall, the Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief

Communications Officer at TriNet. Headquartered in Dublin, Calif. TriNet is a professional employer organization that provides small and medium-size businesses with full-service HR solutions tailored by industry. Michael explains, “from employee benefits to payroll, risk mitigation and compliance, to offering HR expertise and real-time technology, -we handle our clients’ time-consuming HR tasks so they can focus on what truly matters—building their company and furthering innovation. We take a sense of pride in our role – that we support the inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs that our nation’s success depends on. We help propel them forward in the direction of their dream. We gain a sense of accomplishment when we witness the success of these SMBs.”

Michael further trickles this conversation into the realm of SMBs to illustrate the actual innovation quotient and why they do what they do. “Nearly 43% of all scientists and engineers crowd the SMB space, which also sports a staggering number of patents – almost 13 times more than big corporations. Sitting right at the heart of the American innovation equation and undoubtedly the backbone of the U.S economy, SMBs account for 50 percent of the country’s GDP. But the real question is how? Is digital the holy grail for talent companies like everybody else? Or are the natural instincts and people skills still in play?

“The convenience of intuitive and predictive tech should be every CMO’s weapon of choice. They must adapt and bridge the gap between marketing and tech to forge trustworthy ties with customers and profit their brands,” adds Michael. “It’s time to tap into the wealth of data and tools while meeting every ask of their responsibilities. With the first ask of their responsibilities always stemming from the customer – in our case, meeting the SMBs where they are and asking what they need. How can we help them succeed? Ultimately, their success is our success.”

The immediate outcome of this upskilling is marketers become capable of analyzing customer behavior in real-time and design communication strategies to better engage with customers. They are already underway utilizing iPods, tablets, smartphones, wearables, or social engineering on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. “It’s so much so that connecting with your prospect

dictates an entire organization’s strategy and product design starting from the ideation phase. In today’s age wherein our attention lasts as a goldfish’s, intuitive technologies can surely win you the lion share of the market.”

Another piece is conversational marketing, which “satiates the thirst for instant gratification for today’s digital-native customers like nothing else.” Using natural language processing, Chatbots and conversational UIs liberates human agents from the drudgery of iterative and mundane tasks. Now they can focus more on tasks that require prompt human intervention.

In cases of an unprecedented exception, the bot channelizes the conversation to a human agent for an apt solution or deeper emotional resolve, if needed. “Human connection is way too critical and still a winning factor for brands if they do it in rhythm with the brand’s expansion and performance dynamics. We’re living in an omnichannel world wherein customers interact with

brands. And each touchpoint spurs a fresh possibility to incite engagement. For me, I don’t get commoditized that there’s real value or perceived value by the end customer. And that there’s a sense of trust,” opines Michael.

Discussing the future, Michael seems optimistic and very forthcoming to state, “In addition to leading all aspects of marketing, CMOs are increasingly participating in the full cycle of decision-making and generating growth in companies. The antiquated

flywheel effect imposed on CMOs is fast vanishing into thin air.” He re-emphasizes that modern CMOs or innovators, as likes to call them, symbolize a digitally proficient strategy artist who paints every picture of the customer using vivid colors. Each color should define the various aspect of the buyer.

With 44 percent of B2B marketers still feverish from digital fatigue, it reckons to be one of their most appalling roadblocks in 2021. So, in chorus with creativity, marketing gurus also need to rely heavily on tech, and if obscured about it, should devise a way out of it. “Behavioral science and data-led intelligence are going to keep their ship sailing and in all channels. And besides ensuring business continuity, this will future-proof businesses by empowering them with uber-cool modes of engagement. Be it immersive content like AR, VR, or new-age videos – content is still king, and digital is the kingmaker today,” he assures.