Marketing Pulse Survey
2014
Introduction
Korn Ferry’s Marketing Center of Expertise surveyed 215 CMOs and senior marketing leaders. The Marketing Pulse Survey asked a variety of questions, ranging from talent development to customer engagement trends and data analytics. The survey set out to determine the foremost issues facing CMOs and top marketers and to create a baseline of sentiment among marketing executives tackling the big issues of today.
Similar to the last year’s survey, we have aggregated top marketing executives’ opinions on the key business issues impacting their companies and jobs in order to provide us with a pulse of what is driving marketing decisions in the C-suite.
Today, there is increased pressure put on marketers to demonstrate that their work directly contributes to bottom-line results. The tactics available to execute against that goal are expanding daily. Knowing where marketers are focusing their resources and which technologies and standards they are employing will help create a clearer picture of the marketing landscape.
Today’s CMOs are putting increased dollars towards content marketing, signaling that businesses are once again allocating more resources towards their marketing efforts. However, as marketing spend increases, the survey finds that the inability to directly connect marketing efforts to tangible business outcomes may be a large contributor to the historically high CMO turnover rates. Also impacting high turnover among CMOs is the inability to align marketing deliverables with CEO objectives, the inability to drive organizational change and the inability to deliver timely results.
Has your organization increased its spend on content marketing?
What do you feel is the biggest contributing factor to low CMO tenure when compared to other C-Suite functions?
Yes No 80%
20%
Inability to align marketing deliverables with CEO objectives
Inability to deliver timely results
Inability to drive organizational change Inability to directly connect marketing efforts to tangible business outcomes
56.7%
17.2% 8.8% 17.2%
4
Despite increased budgetary pressures, the survey revealed customer engagement is what keeps most marketers up at night. Specifically, the ability to create sustainable and engaging customer relationships while improving the customer experience is the top concern, followed by staying ahead of and taking advantage of digital opportunities, demonstrating marketing’s ROI and aligning marketing with the overall business strategy.
What keeps you up at night?
34.0%
26.5%
12.6%
27.0% Ability to demonstrate marketing’s ROI
Aligning marketing with the overall business strategy Staying ahead and taking advantage of the digital technology trends (social, mobile)
Creating sustainable and engaging customer relationships and improving the customer experience
While the marketing function remains primarily responsible for the aftermarket customer experience, developing a successful platform requires marketers to work cohesively across various departments of an organization. With this cross-function collaboration comes challenges. The survey shows that the biggest hurdle when working with other functions is aligning the different department strategies followed closely by integrating the customer experience across all available sales channels. Surprisingly, however, when asked what the most sought after specialized skill was for a marketer, customer relationship management came in at the bottom. According to respondents, digital marketing and analytical thinking are the two most desired competencies for today’s marketers.
42.8% 26.0%
13.9% 8.7%
8.7% Leveraging big data
Creating customer engagement
Aligning department strategies and priorities Integrating the customer experience across the various sales channels
Developing seamless messaging across different communication channels
0.5% Marketing Operations Sales No one Communications 39.5% 34.9% 15.3% 9.8%
Which department within the
organization is most responsible for the aftermarket customer experience? What is the biggest hurdle when working with other
6
Analytical thinking Digital marketing Strategic planning
Customer relationship management 30.2%
32.6% 21.4%
15.8%
What is the most sought after specialized skill within the marketing function?
0-25% 25-50% 50-75% Over 75% 76.3% 17.2% 5.6% 0.9% 2.3% Increase
Stayed the same Decrease 77.2% 20.5% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Twitter LinkedIn E-mail
alerts E-mailnews- Mobilecomm.programsLoyalty Events Printmailersadverts.Print adverts.Online adverts.TV Promoevents Cust.svc. Salesteam emps.Other Facebk
How much of your overall 2014 marketing budget goes toward social media
(Facebook, Twitter, Google ads, etc.)?
Is this an increase or decrease from 2013?
Please select all of the marketing channels that your organization uses to engage with customers:
The industry is facing a growing list of channels in which to reach customers. As social media continues to fuel customer interaction, it comes as little surprise that an overwhelming majority of respondents saw an increase in their social media spending for 2014. With numerous platforms available, marketers must determine which ones will be most beneficial to achieving their goals.
8 4.2% 3.7% Up to 25% increase 25% to 50% increase 50% to 75% increase 75% to 100% increase
I do not expect to increase spend in this area
20.5%
52.6% 19.1%
3.7%
Measuring business outcomes of creative programs Leveraging consumer data to support intuitive hypothesis Personalizing the customer experience
Predicting future trends
23.7%
33.5%
39.1%
By what percentage do you expect your company to increase the use of predictive analytics and Big Data tools this year?
For your team, what has been the most effective application for analytics?
As organizations have increased access to large amounts of data that help drive their business strategies, the overwhelming majority of respondents have increased their use of predictive analytics and big data tools in the last year. From a marketing perspective, the majority of respondents say analytics can be most effective when measuring business outcomes of creative programs and leveraging consumer data to support intuitive hypotheses.
With marketers more ingrained in their organizations’ overall business plans than ever before, more boards are turning to them for their unique perspective and expertise. Nearly half of all survey respondents currently serve on an outside board, but it’s not only marketing spend and ROI or customer strategy that they advise most on – it’s overall business strategy, as well. While marketing strategies are still a large part of a CMOs role on a corporate board, their ability to be learning agile lends itself to much broader roles and responsibilities.
Yes No 42.3% 57.7% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Business
strategy Customer strategy Social anddigital strategy
Customer
experience spend/ROIMarketing Customerinsights/ data/ analytics
Product development
Do you serve on an outside board?
If yes, in your board member role which of the following do you advise on?
Korn Ferry’s Global Marketing Center of Expertise focuses on helping organizations attract, develop, and retain best-in-breed talent for Chief Marketing Officers and other senior marketing leaders. Located in key business centers around the globe, our team has worked in and with the world’s leading companies and has specialized knowledge of the nuances of different marketing roles and leaders. In conjunction with industry specialists, they partner with clients on the “upfront diagnosis” to connect the business mandate to the deliverables of the role and the definition of the specific candidate profile and success factors, including measurable leadership competencies. By aligning the business agenda with CMO success factors, we help you ensure that your CMO and senior marketers are the right leaders to drive your strategic goals. Beyond strategic search, they also partner with our Leadership Consultants across the talent management continuum to help clients identify their Marketing leaders’ potential, drive development, accelerate readiness, and energize transitions. We are the only firm that can help you identify internal and external CMO talent, measure Learning Agility, and develop, design, and align learning agile marketing teams.
Korn Ferry’s CMO Center of Expertise
About Korn Ferry
At Korn Ferry, we design, build, attract and ignite talent. Since our inception, clients have trusted us to help recruit world-class leadership. Today, we are a single source for leadership and talent consulting services to empower businesses and leaders to reach their goals. Our solutions range from executive recruitment and leadership development programs, to enterprise learning, succession planning and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Visit www.kornferry.com
for more information on Korn Ferry, and www.kornferryinstitute.com for thought leadership, intellectual property and research.
Caren M. Fleit is a Senior Client Partner and Leader of Korn Ferry’s Global Marketing Center of Expertise. Based in New York, Ms. Fleit focuses on recruiting senior executives for marketing-driven and customer-focused companies, with a concentration on image-oriented retail, consumer goods and services businesses, and the B-to-B companies that partner with them.
Within this arena, her search assignments span the executive suite, with an emphasis on general management, senior marketing, senior sales and senior operations positions. She also leads senior marketing assignments across industry verticals.
Additional key contacts:
Amy Young – Atlanta
Anne Park Hopkins – Atlanta
Becky Stein – San Francisco
David Barnes - Princeton
Eduardo Latham – Miami
EJ Chae - Singapore
Elaine Dinos – Atlanta
Eve Nam - Newport Beach
Elektra Mararian - Singapore
Jacques Amey - Geneva
Jane Stevenson – Atlanta
Jeff Hocking – San Francisco
Jennifer DeCastro – New York
John Kuper - Philadelphia
Julie Forman – Montreal
Kate Wright – Melbourne
Katherine Lee - New York
Keith Feldman - San Francisco
Marc Gasperino - New York
Oliver Dange* - Frankfurt
Peri Hansen - Los Angeles
Philiep Dedrijvere* - Amsterdam & Brussels
Richard Sumner – London
Sue Ribot - Reston
Tierney Remick – Chicago
Yves Moyen - Sao Paulo
