Four Ways CMOs Can Deliver on the Growth Agenda in Uncertain Times - McKinsey

Consumer spending has been significantly impacted in recent months as chief marketing officers and chief growth officers wrestle with the portfolio and marketing implications of this shiftGiven the current economic uncertainty many of them are already scenario planning and building up their resilience muscles Theyamp8217re also asking key questions to prepare for an unclear future includingHow do I drive growth in an uncertain and volatile landscapeHow and where can I optimize my marketing spendHow can I create better consumer experiencesHow do I redefine the brand to engage all stakeholders and rally the organization to accelerate our growth journeyThe pandemic ushered in a period of unprecedented economic turmoil across the globe But marketing leaders can learn from the past to chart a new course forward gleaning insights from the Great Recession of 20072009 to implement some of the key lessons learnedGrowth preservation Focus on preserving and growing market share protecting against challenger brands by maintaining consumer connectionamp160Rapid adaptability Adjust channel focus as everchanging consumer sentiment forces organizations to accelerate planning cycles and rethink both investment strategies and offeringsamp160Precise ampamp proactive Be surgical about creating new efficiencies to fund growthamp160Protect the brand Stay topofmind for customers throughout the recession to come out on top when itamp8217s overFocusing on these areas can provide CMOs with a comprehensive plan to help ensure sustained innovation and longterm growthGrowth preservationCMOs should focus on finding the most efficient and effective place to put their next marketing dollar Close collaboration with strategy and operations combined with realtime inventory analysis pricing optimization and near realtime media feeds can help ensure marketers invest in brands or products most in need of growth Key questions for CMOs to address includeWhich products do I need to generate demand foramp160Where am I playing defense instead of offenseamp160Which channels online versus instore are performing best and how do I support them with the marketing budgetRapid adaptabilityThe pandemic taught marketers the importance of adaptability a lesson that should remain relevant as the macroeconomic situation changes The annual planning season should include multiple scenarios instead of a deterministic approach And letamp8217s be clear the single planning cycle is extinct Planning and replanning should ensure flexibility adaptability and maximum efficiency and effectivenessBy preparing ahead of time with a playbook they can deploy under each scenario and sharing the volumesales implications of each with other stakeholders CMOs will likely be able to act much faster in the future An agile operating model within marketing ought to enable these types of quickreaction pivots based on realtime marketing performance Key questions for CMOs to address includeWhat are the early warning signs to look for in each scenarioamp160What are the key priorities to drive in each scenarioamp160What operating model should I use to shift media dollars and strategy in realtime And where will I use an agile model to deploy some opportunities using setaside fundsPrecise and proactive It should come as no surprise to most CMOs when they are inevitably asked to achieve efficiencies during a downturn while still delivering revenue growth CMOs should take both a holistic and granular view across marketing spend to identify opportunities for the redeployment of funds to stimulate growthStart by assessing the big picture across all consumerfacing investments with an eye to the portfolio strategy This may also require an agile operating model that allows for quick redeployment and shift of marketing spend making datadriven decisions in near realtime Key questions for CMOs to address includeDo I have full transparency into where the spend is going What is our marketing amp8220source of truthamp8221amp160Am I constantly challenging my team to move dollars leveraging dynamic creative optimization DCO and strategically targeting and personalizing communications to deliver efficiencyamp160Am I having an ongoing dialogue with the CFO and my Csuite peers to unify the organization around the new growth agenda on the impact of marketing dollarsProtect the brand The last CMO task to build resilience involves combining key learnings from portfolio strategy the current scenario playbook and spend efficiency to update their media strategies This may be a tempting moment to divert more media dollars towards channels and tactics that lend themselves to agility and measurability eg digital retail media networksConsumer analytics marketing return on investment MROI and measurement will help improve precision targeting and marketingamp8217s impact on growth throughout periods of uncertainty However as mentioned above that does not mean brand spending should be slashed In the Great Recession brands that continued to invest at the top of the funnel emerged stronger than those that did not Key questions for CMOs to address includeWhat new and emerging channels should I be considering eg retail media networksamp160How do I most effectively blend MMM marketing mix modeling with incrementality testingamp160What aspects of my immediate data and analytics do we want to own versus an agency or our agency to activate at speed and scaleHistory shows that resilient companies are much more likely to succeed especially during a crisis Rather than retreat or cut spending CMOamp8217s should bear these four strategies in mind to help remain drivers of future performance for their organizationsClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Four Ways CMOs Can Deliver on the Growth Agenda in Uncertain Times - McKinsey

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