Jack Trout points out that CMOs need to get back to focusing on Positioning/Differentiation, a plug for his book, maybe, but he has a point. According to Businessweek, “the job is radioactive”, “CMOs have shorter average tenure than NFL coaches”, and that, “a well known recruitment company states that 70% of companies don’t know what they are looking for when recruiting a CMO.”

Trout also notes that, according to Peter Drucker, the job of CMO is crucial yet simple:

I started with a Peter Drucker quote that I’ve often written about: “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two, and only these two, basic functions:marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

So there it is. The father of business consulting pointed out that the CMO has one of the most important jobs in a company.

And he even went on to even give a job description for the position, which is in
charge of developing “the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” In other words, what is it that makes the company or product unique and different? That’s the assignment. So in simple language, marketing’s role is to turn a differentiating idea into a full-scale program. The idea is the nail. The program is the hammer that drives it into the mind of the prospect. What could be simpler? Why all the fuzziness? In fact, I wrote a book on this subject titled “Differentiate or Die” that lays out how to do all this in great detail.

Trout also notes (see chart below) the problem may be that CMOs focus on everything but differentiating the brand/company.

Link to the CMO Strategy article

About a month ago I began writing a series of blog posts on “the myth of Hispanic Marketing.” My position is that there is no “Hispanic Marketing”, and that there is only one discipline called marketing, and that all consumer segments should be approached in the same deliberate and disciplined method.

Just last week in retailwire.com, the following question was posted for discussion: “Is the American public, marketers included, naïve and gullible when it comes to understanding the Latino consumer? If so, why? If not, why do there seem to be so many mistakes?”

In my opinion, the article preceding the question was as revealing as the contentious discussion on “Hispanic Marketing” that followed. You can download the article and comments by clicking on the retailwire image.

*A description of the discussion by an intelligent and learned individual