The End of CMOs and the Rise Of Localism
UPS and Starbucks made a bold move recently when they eliminated their CMO roles.
The former replaced it with a commercial and strategy officer while the latter was replaced by…no one, its functions falling on the regional managers.
The end of global marketing is the outcome of a series of trends that have been unfolding for the last twenty years.
Here they are.
1. Company Values Alignment
I once read about a company without any marketing department because “marketing was a function of the entire company” (was it Tesla? Not sure I remember).
The purpose was to constrain every employee to be a part-time marketing officer and to embed the company’s values within the tasks that they performed.
While it’s not the easiest solution, it offers many advantages among which is authenticity.
Consumers no longer stand being lied to. They don’t want to buy a product or an experience anymore; they want to buy values.
This explains the stratospheric rise of B Corp and other badges of honors that came to decorate so many websites.
If you have a marketing department tasked to communicate those values, the rest of the activities of the company may…
