The future of the corporate marketing function: 'we're all marketers'

Interesting study from McKinsey on the future -well, the immediate future- of the corporate marketing role. Unsurprisingly the importance of social media is prevalent in the changes impacting the marketing function, and the study quite rightfully stresses the importance of the marketing function to be embedded with other corporate function.

In their eyes, while marketing should be at the center of all communication functions (including customer service and sales), it also entails that marketing skills should be introduced in these other teams. Quite a complex structure emerges with dotted and straight line reporting between responsibilities and skills -evolving in a typical McKinsey matrix structure, topped by some councils. It does make sense, however, and the interviews with corporate CMO's (2 out the 3 are embedded below) show that there is a concrete need for it in the current business context.

The study doesn't mention crowdsourcing or open innovation as an enhancer of the marketing function, which is a bit of a pity. But still it's a highly recommended read:

Click here for the main article explaining in detail how the new marketing chellenges impacts the marketing organization.
The 2 videos beneath are taken from the interview section.

Video: John Hayes on the future of marketing

The CMO of American Express reveals how marketers are losing control over what’s said about their products, while still being held accountable for their success or failure.

Video: Duncan Watts on the future of marketing

The principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research discusses the limits of intuition, and how conventional wisdom keeps being overturned as marketers apply science to data.