CMO survival guide: Digital strategy amid and after COVID-19
Even before COVID-19, reliance on digital strategy was growing — the pandemic only accelerated this trend. Learn how execs are adapting.
Won’t bore you with little things like counting the number of episodes, the increasing number of comments and shares, or the fact that I actually managed to find the time and commitment 6 weeks in a row to do this (don’t tell Wondrous Jenn or she’ll crack the big editor whip over my head, so I won’t slack off on #7).
Alas, here we are. Good stuff so far, more (and better) coming.
I shared this with you in two of the last two postings: I told you how Thunderhead (a partner or ours) is getting the good conversations going about real-time interactions and the business models behind it, how I like this new content they have going around, etc.
In short, I like where they’re going and one of my friends agrees with me (and not just because she’s a friend, but because she’s one of the smartest people I know). To celebrate that, I recorded a video with her (yes, will continue without naming the guests… sue me) to discuss this graphic from their report:
BTW, this is a textbook definition of tangentiality… but the good way.
… I hope.
CX business purpose: It exists, with very good reason
Now that you feel all happy, warm, and fuzzy inside from that marvelous video – time to get cracking on the other things that occupied my mind this last week (in addition to the dynamic journeys topic, which I continue to butcher in search of an easy way to create a good explanation of it – stay tuned for that, but very promising).
First, a couple of links.
Here is the link to a very interesting report. I’ve been borrowing data from here lately for conversations, tons of very cool stuff and well organized. It’s the 2020 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report, published by NTT (they acquired the report together with Dimension Data, the company that published it for nearly two decades prior) this year for the first time. I read this before; it’s chock full of great data and analysis, but the one stat that caught my attention the most this year was this (and I’m rounding numbers and including my own analysis here):
The number of companies that recognize that there is commercial value (read, make money or save money) in CX has grown by more than 20%, while almost 40% of companies decided that creating trust and loyalty is no longer a priority.
How awesome is that? Actual a business purpose for CX! (incidentally, this may be biased as I am myself working on the deck that provides a business case for CX around commercial reasoning and value co-creation… then again, who am I to argue with data?)
Another cool link (or two), kind of a palate refresher before digging deep into the final item is this article from Business2Community that also references a white paper from Korn Ferry. Both of them end up talking about the changing role of the CMO.
Now, time for a rant – sort of
In 2013 (sorry, could not find a link anywhere) Gartner predicted that by 2017 CMO’s would have larger budgets and more technology responsibilities than their CIO counterparts. Unfortunately, this started the age of MarTech and the mind-obliterating eyechart of 8,000+ vendors who supposedly bring value to marketing.
I’m still bewildered each time I read this, how is anyone supposed to find value amongst 8,000 logos with no idea what they are looking for (spare me the admonishment, this is clickbait with zero value add, been through many rounds of this already)?
Sorry, another tangent – anyways, this led to CMO’s rising in the executive ranks (followed by a shrinking tenure, but that’s a different discussion). Since then, the value of marketing has diminished (in my opinion) in the world of end-to-end experiences, and that is bad for CX.
The two articles above, if you read them like I did, basically say that is coming to an end.
Yay (confetti and marching bands). Just in time for valuable end-to-end dynamic experiences incorporating marketing technology for business outcomes that meet customer expectations and co-create value.
Modern marketing: The fundamentals have changed – have you?
The definition of marketing is moving goods and services from the source of tools, channels, and mechanics to the consumer, but most marketers haven't adapted for digital - and that's a BIG problem.
Book ’em, Danno: What CX leaders should be reading
And finally, a book.
In 2013 (same year as the rise of the CMO per Gartner – I don’t trust coincidences; more at the end) Dan Seffer wrote a book that I’ve been advocating for my entire career, without knowing the book was there. Truth be told, I had recommendations in past lives to read this – but I keep dismissing it due to lack of time. Finally, this weekend I made the time to read.
Microinteractions (the link takes you to Google Books where you can read it online, or you can go to your favorite book monger to pay for a digital / physical version of it) is a concept that is neither new to me, nor well understood (still) in the world.
The book does a great job of explaining the many pieces, iterations, and nuances and even provides examples and advice on how to move forward. This is topic is at the core of distributed computing, cloud, and tomorrow’s enterprise architectures – and this principle is at the core of CX as well, and of topics like personalization, customization, integration, and any other “-ion” that you can possibly come up with in enterprise tech.
It should be required reading for anyone who sets out to design products, solutions, or initiative for any organization or vendor.
Getting the idea? It’s awesome and not dated at all – much like this website.
All are welcome here: Welcome to the future of commerce
The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the value (or damage) of the words left unsaid? Only by imagining a future that's better for all of us can we begin to build a world that's inclusive of each of us.
Sorry, one more tangent, in 2012 I wrote a white paper on what it means to be pure cloud – it was fantastic and incorporates a lot of the topics from this book but focused on cloud computing – still valid today, by the way.
Someone told me in 2014 that it was “dated” because it was written in 2012. Will sanitize my reply for you by saying that I didn’t take that response lightly, nor will I take anyone who criticizes any writing about infrastructure as dated.
The US Navy commissioned a study on distributed work in 1939 – and virtually all those concepts still live today in cloud computing. If you think that Python, RoR, blockchain, Go, or whatever your latest and greatest shiny tech is “the answer” – just know that you’re wrong, because all that stuff is built on top of books like Microinteractions. And if you don’t get those concepts right, your tech is truly – meh, at best.
One of my favorite passages in this book, totally support this concept. (Had to make this a screenshot since Google Books would not let me cut and paste from the book)
I guess that was two rants today… ok.
You want to yell at me over my attack on MarTech? My rant on tech not being the answer, but deep infrastructure never becoming dated? My comments on anything else? Or something my guest said? Or me? Either find me on LinkedIn or – email me at the worse kept secret in the industry (my email address)
Oh yeah, one more thing…
“I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don’t trust coincidences.” —Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
