Out Of The Mouths Of Marketers

These 13 tips from some of the world’s top marketing execs will make you stop and think

“Forget what you learned last year. Don’t focus on catching up to the competition. Seek out what is coming next, or, even better, create what is coming next. The world is changing so fast. What we called new media a few years ago is already old.”

Benjamin Karsch, Chief Marketing Officer, Revlon:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Out with the old…

“This definition of creativity where it just applies to the world of art and copy, Mad Men, and Don Draper is a mistake. You can have creative data people. You get creative financial people. The only reason people feel like that is they tend to think of creativity in a very narrow sense.”

Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder/CEO, WPP:

Read the full Interview here.

Data people can and must be creative…

“It’s not just about having extraordinary talent on the team. It has to be a combination of good people with great talent. They should be sensitive to other people, considerate, and it’s not about ‘me, me, me,’ ‘I, I, I, ‘ ‘my accomplishment,’ ‘my reward,’ ‘my growth.’ It has to be ‘we,’ it has to be ‘our,’ it has to be ‘us.’”

Raja Rajamannar, CMO, MasterCard:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

It’s all about ‘we,’ not ‘me’…

“Ultimately you have to trust your gut. And sometimes take a risk–a risk that you just kind of know in your gut is the right thing to do and is worth making. That strategy is not always successful, but in our case it has worked so far. And there’s a great deal you can learn from missteps. It’s all a journey.”

Bridget Russo, CMO, Shinola

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Trust your gut…

“The best digital team has a combination of digital experts--who’ve probably come from outside--with internal high-flyers. The role of the digital team is definitely to be coaching and advising the non-digital teams on how to execute in digital, as well as delivering solutions. If digital is becoming pervasive, it can’t just be done by the digital team.”

Mark Elkins, VP, Digital, Coca-Cola Enterprises:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Hire generalists, not specialists…

“First and foremost, be clear as to what your brand stands for. Next, be customer-centric. And, third, keep messaging simple.”

Paul Macaluso, Marketing SVP, FOCUS Brands:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Three rules to live by…

My marketing philosophy involves collaboration. I do believe that an idea gets better if you work with a lot of different people, so I think that’s critical. The other critical thing for me is pushing the envelope. One thing I try to tell the team is, “If you never make a mistake, you’re probably not pushing hard enough.” We can’t be afraid to make mistakes, do things differently, and be bold.

Jessica Correa, SVP Of Marketing, Planet Fitness:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Don’t be afraid of failure…

“”First you have to set the vision, and customer centricity has to be the final objective. Then you have to change the DNA of the business. Everything from corporate success metrics to the way operations and process flows have to be more customer-centric. Then you move to upgrading the skills.”

Mark Zablan, President, Adobe EMEA:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Customer centricity, the final objective…

“The reality is, mobile is the first access point for the majority of the people living in the [APAC] region, yet most marketers anywhere else in the world haven’t got their heads around that yet.”

Wayne Arnold, Global CEO, Lowe Profero:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Prioritize mobile in APAC…

“I have a very good and longstanding collaboration with our CTO. Our strategy is built on a combination of technology and services leadership, so the technology component is crucial to us. We have deepened the relationship between the two teams over the last couple of years, especially in how to build our vision of a networked society. Our deep understanding of how the technology will likely develop is a key ingredient to how we build industry thought leadership.”

Helena Norrman, CMO, Ericsson:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Work closely with IT…

“Mobile is pervasive, digital is pervasive, and you’ve got to make sure you optimize your mix with digital being an essential piece of both. It’s not separate; it’s fully integrated. There are no dividing lines, and you’ve got to make sure that it’s all optimized. Optimization is an aspiration, and to get perfection in marketing is an unattainable goal—but we want to move toward it.”

Nick Utton, CMO, BMC Software:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Perfection is unattainable, but strive anyway…

“One of the biggest mistakes is that [companies] get very obsessed with competitors. And I’ve always believed that you should not be obsessed with the competitors. You should be obsessed with your own customers.”

Faisal Masud, Chief Digital Officer, Staples:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Don’t get hung up on everyone else…

“Bring new ideas into [your] organization [carefully] and make sure you fully understand how they will dovetail with business challenges, and how you get other people comfortable with the new technologies, new ways of approaching the market, new ways of marketing, etc.”

Mark Addicks, CMO/SVP, General Mills:

Read the full CMO Interview here.

Make others comfortable with the new…