A colleague recently alerted me to an article in Marketing Week that shares new data from a Forrester report by Chris Stutzman:
An astonishing 75% of chief marketing officers plan to rearrange their teams by the end of this year, according to a study seen exclusively by Marketing Week.
Why? Because new forms of media and communications are having such a fundamental effect on business that the customer is closer to becoming king than ever before. Meanwhile, many businesses that still operate under models that were designed for another time, are lagging behind consumer trends.
For three-quarters of marketing heads to be saying that they are going to rejig teams at the same time seems like a bit on an epiphany.
Stutzman is quoted as saying, “It’s almost like a reality check went off within marketing leadership, where they realized they can’t be the brand of the future through yesterday’s organization.”
Amen — it’s about time we reached this tipping point!
The Marketing Week article goes on to suggest four ways that brands can do things differently “in the wake of this new media explosion:”
- Get rid of the ghettos — no more teams working on projects in their own worlds.
- Don’t hire a social media specialist — the company as a whole should engage.
- Experiment and negotiate — set aside an ample experimentation budget.
- Get your customer service right — don’t say customer-centric, be customer-centric.
Reminds me of some of the ideas Chris Kuenne shared a couple of weeks ago, such as the vision of a Rubik’s Cube structure for the marketing department.
The Marketing Week article includes some insightful weigh-ins from InterContinental Hotels, Epson, Thomson Reuters, ING Direct, Disney, and more. Read the entire piece here.
