A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog marking the anniversary of my first interview of a CMO for my book – Harry Pforzheimer of Intuit.  If you’d like to download this chapter, I’m making it available here as a sampler.

One year ago today, I interviewed Amy Curtis-McIntyre who, until very recently, was CMO of Old Navy.  I only just discovered that Amy has left The Gap brands in a management re-shuffle, but I would expect that given her marketing pedigree, she will land in an amazing new position somewhere exciting.

In a “Blue Paper” published by Spencer Stuart entitled “CMO tenure: slowing down the revolving doors”, the average tenure for CMOs at the top 100 branded companies is just 22.9 months.  Based on their data, only 14% of CMOs for the world’s top brands have been with their companies for more than three years, and nearly half are new to the job over the last 12 months.

One of the reasons given for such short tenures, compared to the CEO average of 53.8 months, is that a disconnect exists between the skills required of today’s CMO and those of the past.  Just because a marketer was successful in the 1980s, where big image and even bigger advertising ruled, it does not mean he or she will be a good fit today, when successful marketing requires a much more complete, integrated and multi-audience approach. 
From the research I did for my book, the sorts of attributes which will be come increasingly important to marketers will be:

• Strong leadership - CEOs or leaders will be major sources of encouragement, championing the marketing discipline.
  
• Boldness in planning - experimentation will be promoted and transparency across the marketing team will be key.
• Multi-stakeholder approach - the aim of marketing will be far broader than customers and employees.
• Blended thinking - media and channel agnostic approaches will need to breed engagement and participation.
• Shared KPIs - augmented metrics and analytics will be shared with other functions such as IT and Finance.
• Talent cultivation - championing training, advancement and mobility to engage and develop star talent will become critical.

If someone had told me a year ago that I could write a book in just over four months - while still doing my all-encompassing day job, I would have thought they were crazy.  But it's amazing what a publisher's deadline will do.  One year ago today, I did my first interview with a CMO for the book - Harry Pforzheimer of Intuit - and I turned my completed manuscript in two days before Christmas.  Of course I had done a bit of prep before that first interview - figured out my questions, done some research, started the book intro, but it wasn't until I had that first interview that the genesis of the book started taking shape.

At that point in time, there was a lot of talk about the demise of the purchase funnel, the "4 Ps" and other conventional marketing approaches.  In fact, there had already been a lot written about the changing funnel.  One interesting piece I found went as far back as late 2006 when ResourceInteractive, a leading digital agency, published a paper entitled "Decoding the Digital Millennials" in which the "old purchase funnel" is revised to more of a "purchase fish" shape, with the largest part of the new funnel, the fish's body, representing "engagement".

And the debate and discussion continues.  Just today, Marketing Profs posted an article entitled "The Funnel is Dead, Long Live the Measurable Customer Narrative" which focuses primarily on the effect that social media has had on the traditional funnel.  But enough about funnels.

What made it easier to write the book was the consensus I found amongst my interviewees.  There were some fairly unanimous views about how everything is converging in the marketer's world - brand, reputation, the power and importance of all audiences (not just consumers), and increasing globality.  Every organization was very different - I included B2C and B2B and organizations that did both.  I spoke with CMOs of very large organizations, like GE and IBM, and with some smaller organizations such as the Pac-12 and Old Navy.  And I included some CMOs from outside the US such as the British Olympic Association and Nissan.  While the CMOs I spoke with had very different org charts, they had a remarkable amount in common in terms of their points-of-view and approaches, and that, in turn, made my job a lot easier in terms of setting out perspectives and drawing some conclusions.

I still can't believe that was just only one year ago today.  Thank you to all my interviewees!

One of my New Year's resolutions was to re-learn Spanish (I was fluent when I graduated from university).  I've made very little progress, but this week I'm having an initial meeting with a Spanish tutor in an effort to kick-start my education!

The current (July/August) issue of Fast Company features a Fast Talk feature entitled Latin Lovers which Hispanic marketing experts and their some of their successes.  It's fascinating and covers brands such as Southwest Airlines, JC Penney, Podsport, Telemundo and L'Oreal.