Leading A Brand across 200 Countries - CMO CLUB Roundtable Discussion at Denver Dinner on Sept. 14 - Gail Galuppo, CMO Western Union

16 CMOs met in Denver last night with Gail Galuppo, CMO at Western Union leading the CMO Roundtable Discussion on "Leading your Brand Beyond Marketing". Gail shared her approach to literally turning around the brand image of Western Union. A number of topics/ideas discussed:

1) Don't think brand strategy as CMO, think business strategy first.
2) As a new CMO, give the existing team a chance. You don't need to always bring in a new team. Leadership plays a significant role in organization performance.
3) Think in terms of three key areas when building your brand, a) emotional connection, b) trust, c) reliability.
4) Moving and promoting regional marketing leaders to global positions will help you with global commitment to new marketing programs. Focus on key influencers of regional business executives, within your global marketing organization, when assigning new global marketing responsibilities.
5) Don't get caught up into regional ROI discussions at all costs. At some point you must balance measurable ROI vs. your expertise as a marketer on what works for building your brand.

We had a number of new CMOs to the club and a great conversation. Thanks to Gail for sharing her insights.

Does your Company Behavior Line up with Your Brand Messages and Promises?

I just finished reading Jonathan Salem Baskin’s recent blog “The Fatwa on my Head” http://dimbulb.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/05/the-fatwa-on-my-head.html , and thought his insights timely given my thoughts after our CMO Thought Leadership Summit this past week.

My favorite quote from his blog is “Fond feelings toward names or logos don't have a direct link to sales. We can strive to make people think happy thoughts until we've exhausted our marketing budgets, but if branding is intended to get people to think about branding, it's sort of a circular, pointless pursuit.”

One of the single biggest take-aways from our summit, the breakout sessions and the conversations at breaks, dinners, and our reception, is the fundamental shift in marketing from brand building thru messaging, creative advertising and big marketing campaigns, to driving the growth agenda for your company by influencing the company wide behaviors your demonstrate.

I think about a recent conversation I had with Todd Townsend, new head of marketing at Qwest ( recent CMO at Sonic Drive In ), and when I asked him the single biggest take away from his time at Sonic that Qwest can benefit from, he quickly responded the focus on operational excellence within marketing and the entire organization. Susan Lintonsmith from Red Robin Restaurants, Ram Menon from Tibco, Mike Hogan from Gamestop, Scott Lutz from SAP, Kim Feil, in her keynote presentation, on her progress and plans at Walgreens, Barb Dondiego from Level 3 Communications, Ted Rubin at elf Cosmetics, Phil Clement at Aon, and others all had conversations with me recently in which their ability to influence company wide behaviors and customer facing employee buy in and commitment to customer service is what’s helping drive the brand.

Clearly we as marketing officers in our companies need to understand our target customer segments, develop “high impact”, clearly defined messaging and differentiation, etc. and implement programs to educate and influence our target audience as to why we are the best, or different, etc. But our role in driving the “actions talk louder than words” reality is critical to our success.

I also think that companies and Brands that have focused over the years on Brand Communications and campaigns exclusively are having a harder time moving to this “always on” social marketing approach as it requires a customer and partner engagement and a company wide behavior shift.

Does your company behavior align with your brand messages and promises?

Jeff Caswell, VP Danone (Evian Brand) - Inserting the Brand into Pop Culture

Jeff Caswell, VP Marketing at Danone (Evian Brand) shares insights on hot to insert brands into pop culture. Discussion includes key issues CMOs must overcome, where many marketers go wrong, examples of success, lessons learned, and final suggestions for CMOs. An excellent 25 minute discussion.

MP3 File

Stephanie Fierman Shares Strategies

On Protecting Your Personal Brand

Points Out That Reputation Management Isn't Just For Brands

In the new world of user-generated content and social media, the importance of reputation management and monitoring brand mentions should not be limited to corporations. Stephanie Fierman, CMO Club Board member, sparked a lively conversation at the group’s dinner in New York this past Tuesday, October 9, with her presentation about personal reputation management.

Citing her own recent experience when several anonymous blog posts rose to the top of the Google results when her name was searched, Fierman urged the group to think of themselves exactly as they think of their companies and employers: as precious brands that deserve promotion and protection.

"Reputation management, both for individuals as well as corporations is nothing new. But the fact that anyone, frequently hidden behind a cloak of anonymity, can post online content about you that may literally be visible to millions of people forever – whether it be true or false – that's new," Fierman explained.

Fierman pointed out that many different stakeholders may find information about executives online, including current employees, bosses and other associates. Given the constant microscope that most CMOs are under, Fierman added that it is critical for members to manage their own personal brands as they manage their careers, particularly those in the market for new professional opportunities.

Fellow CMO Club member Lauryn Franzoni of Execunet supported Fierman’s presentation strongly on this point. According to Execunet, 85% of recruiters say they use search engines to find information on job candidates, and 45% claim to have eliminated a candidate from a search based on information found on the web. And those numbers are bound to increase, as Franzoni told the group that she had attended an event in the last week where 100% of the recruiters in attendance said they make it a practice of checking out candidates online.

To help address the growing concern, Execunet offers its members a webinar and other reference material. The webinar called "Digital Dirt: Online Reputation Management and How You Can Use the Internet to Your Career Advantage," includes the results of Execunet's research on the topic.

For practical steps on how other CMOs can protect their own personal brands, Fierman was to develop your own persona online and “make it part of your daily activities to keep it current – and do it before a crisis occurs.”

A few of the top tips Fierman offered on developing and effectively managing personal reputation online, included:

· Monitor your online presence on all of the search engines, and also check online news services, newsletters, blogs, chat rooms and image banks

· If you do find inaccurate or otherwise unacceptable information about yourself online, respond quickly and authoritatively in the realm where the original content appeared. Your goal is to not only help yourself, but help those seeking information about you to get an accurate picture.

· Create search-friendly content. Blog, post to other blogs, create a website, create online profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) and use business information sites such as zoominfo.com, naymz.com and ziggs.com to communicate.

For more information on the topic of personal reputation management or to reach Fierman directly, visit her website at http://www.stephaniefierman.com/.