Let’s face it, CMO’s love the letter C, so by popular demand, here’s part 2 and 5 more C’s for maximum impact: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Clarity, and Consistency.
If you missed part 1, the first 5 C’s for maximum impact are: Culture, Coaching, Campaigns, Category, and Courage: https://bit.ly/3BFQ7kl
Starting with the Creativity, this is the foundation for savvy marketers or some might say our raison d’etre. Many of us choose marketing as a career because we love to create something new, different, fun or provocative. Especially when you are competing for share of mind and market vs. a much larger, established (but sometimes slow) brand, you need creative muscle to challenge the status quo. Being creative is a way to wield more power than your size (think David vs. Goliath) and build momentum with a novel way, a new idea or a better articulation of a solution to unmet customer or market need.
Next is Communication, and shouldn’t every marketer excel at this? I pride myself in the learned ability to improve all external communications, but equally as important is communicating effectively internally, within the C-suite, across the organization, and 1:1 with staff. It’s also the key to driving successful initiatives and getting through to any audience. I like to anchor all communications on clear, concise and compelling (ok I’m going crazy with C) messaging. After all, that’s how you break through in a sea of sameness and become more attractive to potential buyers.
Collaboration is the 3rd C. It may be a given that organizations that foster greater collaboration do better than those that don’t. And now that we’ve all become inured to video collaboration, the ability to collaborate across to groups, teams, departments and divisions is expected- nevertheless, just participating in a Zoom call together is not tantamount to true collaboration. It requires good listening skills, empathy, understanding and effort. Our innate self-interest must be set aside to foster greater cross-functional collaboration, and by pursuing this road less travelled, better organization adapts and learn to thrive via good human collaboration (#humanizework).
The 4th of 5 C’s Clarity. First, thanks to @Drew Kiran for sharing that we need “clarity of our goals, mission and KPI’s.” In addition, I just think clarify applies to most things in marketing: GTM, Positioning, Messaging, ICPs, Personas, Purpose and Campaigns. Clarity is what sets you apart and helps make a connection with customers, stakeholders and your market at large.
The 5th C for maximizing marketing’s impact is Consistency. This is of course true for every aspect of marketing, consistent product marketing, demand generation, creative execution, messaging and content. But above all else, consistency of brand expression is paramount. It’s far too easy to vary the applications of brand identity and communication, and in so doing, dilute the brand. What makes a brand distinct more than anything is repetition. Think about the best known and valued brands- they are exemplars of consistent design, expression, and personality, and in some cases, taglines (Just Do It). That’s how we come to know and love the brands we do. #CMO #B2B #GrowthMarketing #CMOMentor
CMO Mentor 