Some CMOs Lose Power as New Executive Roles Emerge
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The IDC CMO Advisory Practice projects that IT vendor marketing budgets will decline by 8.3% for the full year 2009, the first decrease in year-on-year marketing spend since the dot-com bust of 2001-2002. IDC analysts are also observing that many marketing executives are facing organizational pressure during 2009, with more than 70% of senior marketers indicating that their marketing departments are experiencing “significant organizational change” in IDC’s latest survey of CMO’s. IDC projects that 6,000 tech marketing jobs will be lost by the end of 2009.
Richard Vancil, vice president of IDC’s Executive Advisory Group noted some key trends within the tech marketing community. “Most marketing departments remain adequately funded – even with these recession-led budget cuts. The problem is, many funds and activities aren’t in the right place. It’s our observation that the best CMOs and marketing leaders are still making progress this year, and they are doing so through re-direction and re-deployment of existing budgets. They are moving money from product-line marketing to streamlined thematic campaigns. They are creating more shared services that remove redundancy in complex marketing organizations. And this year, Sales Enablement has been a major trend that can reduce expenses while boosting productivity.”
The 2009 recession is also causing significant organizational pressure on tech marketing and sales organizations. Vancil noted, “The root cause of organizational change is the continued dysfunction between marketing and sales; where money is wasted and processes are sloppy. And so, in 2009, at many companies, we are seeing the creation of a more unified sales and marketing organization. In some cases, global marketing and sales are now organizationally united under one executive with the title of ‘Chief Sales and Marketing Officer’ or ‘SVP of WW Field Operations.’ This is a cause for concern for some CMOs who may be losing power, because those big areas of budget savings and impact that we suggest be identified and executed, are really only available when the CMO has influence over all marketing: corporate, product , and field.”
The new insights and analysis are from IDC’s CMO Advisory Practice, the tech industry’s most comprehensive benchmarking and advisory offering for tech marketing leadership. IDC’s seventh annual Technology Marketing Benchmarks Survey, completed in September 2009 provides insight into the management techniques and investment strategies based on IDC’s unique access to the world’s largest and most influential technology marketing leaders.
In the upcoming study, Marketing Investment Planner 2010: Benchmarks and Key Performance Indicators, IDC provides a comprehensive analysis of qualitative and quantitative marketing investment priorities, marketing-mix decisions, and operational and organization information for many of the world’s leading and most influential technology vendors. This study is based on surveys and interviews conducted with senior marketing executives of the leading IT hardware, software, and services vendors, including Adobe, Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, SAP, Symantec, and Xerox; representing more than $400 billion in IT revenues and over $15 billion in marketing spending.
The Tech Marketing Benchmarks analysis is the cornerstone of the IDC CMO Advisory Practice, a research service that provides analysis and insight to IT marketers to improve the productivity and efficiency of their marketing practice.
About IDC’s CMO Advisory Practice
The CMO Advisory Practice provides IT marketing executives with the industry’s most respected marketing benchmarks, research-based advice, and peer-networking, to strengthen planning, operational, and market-execution decisions. The CMO Advisory Practice is a part of IDC’s Executive Advisory Group which provides Sales, Marketing and Market Intelligence executives with critical insights and research-based information to plan investments, prepare operations, mobilize resources, and measure results. Members also access the collective knowledge of peer-level managers to gain the insights of fellow practitioners.
For more information on the IDC CMO Advisory Service, contact Michelle Blondin at 508-988-7579 and mblondin@idc.com.
About IDC
IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps business executives, IT professionals, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on business strategy and technology purchases. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 45 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.
