The 2023 Kellogg Marketing Leadership Summitco-hosted by Kellogg, McKinsey & Company and Egon Zehnder, brought together marketing leaders in discussions focused on how they can build resilience for companies, teams and themselves in the face of radical changes in the industry.
What are today’s marketing leaders facing — and what does that say about the industry at large?
Kellogg Insight spoke with some of the hosts afterwards to reflect more broadly on the trends, challenges and opportunities of the current moment. Three main themes emerged.
Marketing leaders continue to struggle with the influx of data available to their teams—and the changing skills needed to leverage it strategically both now and in the future.
One problem marketing leaders still face is how to make use of the vast amount of data they have access to while still dealing with everything else on their plate.
“There’s so much data at the hands of marketers these days, and there can be a tension between having to react to it in the present and keeping the context of your long-term plan,” says Martha Williams, consultant at Egon Zehnder. “The question for leaders is: How do you set priorities and give strategic clarity, but also respond to insights from your consumer data and filter it to target agile actions that make sense in the near term?”
Jeff Jacobs, a partner at McKinsey & Company, agrees. “Many companies are drowning in data, which has been around for a long time. The best marketing leaders stay focused on understanding where the most value is and what work needs to be done. They ask, “who is the core customer? What do I need to know about them, what data do I really need and what tools can I use?”
And while AI tools like ChatGPT can help leaders “get to answers faster and cheaper,” he says, “it’s still about applying the right questions and prompts versus experimenting with the latest shiny object.”
Jacobs also points out that the growing emphasis on data is shifting the composition of the marketing workforce and thus posing new leadership challenges. “The skills of brand managers are changing,” he says. “It also means that in your marketing teams you now have data scientists, data engineers, UI, UX people. The way you make it as a leader is very different than it used to be—not only the salaries, but the incentives and career paths for marketers look very different.”
But one thing doesn’t change, says Jim Stengel, senior marketing partner at Kellogg (and former head of global marketing at Procter & Gamble): CMOs have always been world leaders. “Now they are also strategic and entrepreneurial, but the ones who rise to the top are good with people.”
Building more inclusive organizations continues to be a priority for marketing leaders — but with so many other priorities, will the emphasis on DEI continue?
Since the killing of George Floyd in 2020, “there has been very significant progress in thinking differently about diversity in organizations,” says Pree Rao of Egon Zenhder. Where companies have previously maintained a very narrow focus on diversity—most often defined along gender lines—there is growing recognition of the need to create inclusive corporate cultures that would improve both the recruitment and retention of a wider range of traditionally underrepresented minorities.
This shift in thinking has seen some results – and success breeds success.
“Young leaders want to join organizations where people stretch their thinking and are pushed in different directions by their own experience, background and skills,” says Williams.
“Once you get past a certain phase, it almost becomes a virtuous cycle, because when you have an underrepresented minority on your team, it can be difficult to have the psychological safety to bring a different perspective? But when you have a larger percentage of your team coming from traditionally underrepresented groups, it creates a very, very different dynamic,” says Rao.
Stengel agrees. “There are many, many companies that are honest about it, that understand it and are making progress,” he says.
But sustaining that progress—and spreading it to less committed companies—isn’t guaranteed. With so many competing priorities and tensions in the marketplace, DEI initiatives could risk falling by the wayside unless organizations and their leaders stay focused on the value diversity and inclusion adds to organizations.
“For change to be sustained, pressure will need to continue to come from both leaders and younger team members, but ultimately the tone of participation needs to be set at the leadership level,” says Williams.
Marketing talent values flexibility more than ever—so marketing leaders must decide whether and how to accommodate it while maintaining a healthy company culture.
It’s hard to overstate how quickly flexibility, including the ability to work remotely, has become a “new expectation” among marketers, particularly those early in their careers, Stengel says. “I recently hosted a group of young people at an event and asked: How many of you would leave your company if you had to be in the office five days a week? Almost everyone said they would leave.”
Marketing leaders at the conference shared the same concerns. “I spoke with two senior marketers who both shared that the first question they are asked by potential new partners is ‘what is your flexibility policy?’ says Williams. “How often people have to go to the office is becoming a defining factor for companies looking at talent.”
This puts leaders in a bind because building a strong and unique company culture is also important, and that can be difficult to do from a distance. Those who benefit most tend to be the same younger workers who are most committed to flexibility.
“Initially, you may be more efficient if you can work from home all the time,” says Rao. “But that amounts — in marketing terms — to a short-term performance marketing focus. You also need to take a longer-term view that’s like building a brand that explains how people learn from each other and what’s best for the collective versus just the individual. The world is moving to a place where marketing teams need flexibility and structure in the same way they need brand and performance.”
The problem is further complicated by the decisions some companies have taken to reduce their real estate footprint. “There are companies that have limited their spaces and now they don’t have enough desks for the two days people come, so people get frustrated because they don’t have a place to sit and they don’t have a designated place to do their work,” says Williams.
Stengel says there is a lot of work to be done.
“I recently spoke with the CMO of Upwork and she said they need to change their conversation from culture where in culture is a how. We all grew up with “Apple has a great building” and “Google has free snacks” and “P&G has laundry machines and babysitting.” This is not reality anymore. There is a role for wherebut where now we might meet once a week at a really cool place and collaborate there,” Stengel says. “Leaders should think how of culture, including discipleship and guidance and observation. That means accepting that we don’t all have to be in the same four walls to do this.”
