Why you don’t need a CMO
A concept gaining popularity in the U.S. at the moment - and particularly in the start-up world - is the "Fractional" C-suite. As the name suggests, a company can access a high-level CFO, COO or CMO at a fraction of their time - 1, 2 or 3 days a week - or as-needed. This gives a client flexibility of gaining high-level marketing resourcing but at a fraction of the cost.
As such, your organisation may not need a full-time CMO but could benefit from a “Fractional CMO” - someone who is retained for only part of a week - or even full-time but for only a few months until a project is underway. Instead of remunerating on a full-time basis, you only pay on a pro-rata basis - stretching your HR budget further.
Fast Company talks more about the concept here.
The concept of a "Chief Brand Officer" is also relatively new. There is a growing movement in having a responsibility that sits between the CEO/Board and the C-suite that covers not just marketing but the whole organisation. It recognises that an organisation's brand permeates everything it does in all areas - the way your phone is answered, how your website looks, how your delivery drivers conduct themselves, your TV commercials, your accounts payable policy, your social media posts - the list goes on. The Chief Brand Officer engages with each area of a business to understand what they believe their brand stands for and reflects this back to the CEO and Board. From there the CBO makes recommendations as to where the CEO, Board and often CMO desire to have the brand positioned and how to engage the organisation as to how to get their buy-in and adoption. A CBO can also be engaged on a fractional basis.
No surprises, but I myself am now a "Fractional CMO" or "Fractional Chief Brand Officer" and have capacity to help your brand. I'm also Founder and CEO of Brand Nexus - a business practice that provides high-level brand and marketing strategy or a full end-to-end brand and marketing solution. If you feel you could benefit from having a Fractional CMO or CBO, let’s have a coffee.
