如何面对海量信息？

    自从MySpace和Facebook首次信息爆炸出现以来，营销官们一直在紧紧追赶社交媒体的步伐。一些首席营销官在接受《财富》杂志（Fortune）采访时表示，最初的时候他们完全能跟得上。但是，许多接受IBM调查的营销官们认为，鉴于通过社交媒体可获得如此多的新数据，他们面临的主要问题是，如何利用这些信息流。

    对公司来说，可获得数据量的增加——无论是广告效果统计还是来自社交媒体的消费者反馈——都带来了机遇和挑战。科特勒表示，很多首席营销官尝试一次管理多个项目，结果导致力不从心。他说，一个替代方法是：“选择会给CEO产生明显影响的两三个项目（来做）。”

    经验丰富的首席营销官认为，营销官们必须管理高管层的预期，一次只确定几个主要项目。可口可乐公司（Coca-Cola）前任首席营销官彼得·希利强调，必须与首席执行官的目标保持紧密一致。他说：“这是首席营销官可以获得的最稳妥的保障”。希利称，他在担任首席营销官期间只选择了两个关键的项目。希利的目标是：当消费者想购买软饮时，首先想到的是可口可乐；当消费者想选择最喜爱的软饮产品时，想到的还是可口可乐。

    首席营销官平均任期较短——目前是一年半到两年之间，这使他们实现宏图大志的机会少之又少。虽然首席营销官的平均任期在稳步延长，但是在高管职位中，它仍是一个困难重重的职位。甘尼特报业集团（Gannett）首席营销官麦尔彦·巴尼卡瑞姆警告说：“很多事情都超出营销官控制的范围。而且，很多时候首席营销官离职是因为他们的实际工作内容和签约时确定的工作内容不相符。”

    获得首席执行官支持的一个方法，是尽量获得消费者更多的信任。点评网站Bazaarvoice现任首席营销官【曾担任戴尔公司（Dell）首席营销官】埃林·纳尔逊称，她供职戴尔公司时，戴尔正面临着消费者的信任危机。她的首要任务是为公司的工程师和技术员工提供培训，告诉他们消费者不满的原因。工程师们茅塞顿开，开始着手不断对产品进行完善。

Plenty of information, but what do you do with it?

    Marketers have been playing catch-up on social media since the first explosions of MySpace and Facebook, and several CMOs told Fortune they believe the initial catch-up is complete. But with so much new data available through such platforms, many of the CMOs surveyed by IBM said they struggle with how to use the information flowing in.

    The growth in data available to companies -- whether it's advertising results or consumer feedback from social media channels -- has created both opportunities and headaches. Kotler says that too many CMOs wind up over-extending themselves by trying to shepherd an array of projects all at once. "Choose two or three things that will have a highly visible impact on the CEO," he says, as an alternative approach.

    Experienced CMOs agree that marketers must manage the C-suite's expectations and opt to put their stamp on a few key projects at a time. Peter Sealey, former CMO of Coca-Cola (KO), stresses that the CMO must stay in lockstep with the chief executive's vision. "It's the best job security a CMO can have." Sealey says he picked just two critical battles during his tenure as CMO. When a consumer considered soft drinks, Sealey wanted that person to think of Coke first. Then when choosing a favorite, Sealey wanted the consumer to again turn to Coke.

    The short average tenure of the CMO position – until recently ranging from 18 months to two years – has offered a narrow window for these executives to produce big-picture results. While chief marketers agree that the average tenure of the position is steadily on the rise, it's still a difficult seat to keep at the executives' table. "There are a lot of things out of your control," Maryam Banikarim, CMO of Gannett (GCI), warns. "And, a lot of times, people leave because it wasn't the job they signed up for."

    One way to keep the support of the chief executive is to earn more trust from consumers. Erin Nelson, CMO of Bazaarvoice and former CMO of Dell (DELL), says that when she took the job at Dell, the company's relationship with its customers was in crisis. Her immediate task was to educate the engineers and the technical side of the company on why consumers were upset. The engineers were galvanized by the information and went to work on improving their products.

承认弱点，寻求帮助

    科特勒称：“数字化时代意味着更智能的购物渠道”和更精明的消费者。“Twitter上的消息传播得飞快。做得好的公司，人们不吝赞美之词；做得不好的公司，人们也会批评。”

    那么，如何确保跻身“好公司”之列呢？接受IBM调查的首席营销官们表示，他们首先要承认代沟给他们带来的弱点。巴尼卡瑞姆称，很多营销官只是“雇佣一个人来负责社交媒体，然后说：‘看，这事已经搞定了。’”

    诚然，要把控制权下放给数字原生代的年轻人，这一点很难做到，尽管有时候这或许是最好的方法。不久前还担任着汤姆森路透（Thomson Reuters）首席营销官的李·安·戴利说，“控制狂”营销官很难放弃对每件事情的控制。

    但是，解决方案并没有多少科技含量，营销官们称：通过让熟悉新型媒体的年轻员工感受到管理层的重视，充分发挥他们的才能。戴利说：“充分信任那些善于利用技术变革的年轻员工，这样，我对每次技术变革的应对都得心应手。我并不指望自己面面俱到。”和宝洁公司（Procter & Gamble）前任首席营销官吉姆·史坦格一样，他们都把反向教育作为向年轻团队成员授权、以及让营销官在数字世界重新焕发生机的方法。

    反向教育本身并不是什么新鲜事物，但是其运用方式却可以进一步完善。史坦格清晰地解释二者的区别：首席营销官必须充分信任年轻员工，但同时必须积极参与，这样才能判断哪些是好点子，哪些是馊主意。史坦格希望看到更多的首席营销官能亲自拜访消费者，与消费者建立直接联系，无论是现实世界的真实联系还是网络世界的虚拟联系。

    换言之，很多公司口口声声地提倡反向教育，安排实习生用几个暑期课程的时间，向经验丰富的高管们介绍Facebook。这样的反向教育即使确实存在，也是远远不够的。

    接受IBM调查的首席营销官中，能实现技术与社交媒体完美平衡的人屈指可数，这么低的比例让史坦格深感不安。史坦格在宝洁公司工作时管理着世界上最庞大的广告预算。

    史坦格说：“这种情况非常危险。首席营销官需要亲身参与。需要拿出80%的时间来写博客吗？没必要。但是，一定要亲身体验。”

    充分利用数字革命意味着改善与他人的沟通（即使只是通过社交媒体）。如果首席营销官们不能认识到这一点，（IBM的调查似乎暗示了这种情况），要想让他们亲自体验社交媒体也会变得异常艰难。

    首席营销官没办法拿出水晶球，预测新一代的颠覆性数字化平台何时诞生；但也没必要整天陷在追赶的游戏中。现在就行动起来，用心经营与公司上下级同事的人际关系。这样，即使新一轮创新革命来临，首席营销官的位置也会固若金汤。

    译者：乔树静/汪皓

Admitting weakness, asking for help

    "Digital means more intelligent buying" and smarter customers, Kotler says. "Word will travel on Twitter about the good guys and the bad guys."

    So how do you make sure you are one of the "good guys"? The CMOs surveyed by IBM say they first need to admit to a generational disadvantage. According to Banikarim, too many CMOs simply "hire one person to do social media and say, 'Check, I've got that covered.'"

    To be sure, it can be difficult to relinquish control to a younger generation of digital natives, even in cases where that's the best approach. Lee Ann Daly, until recently the CMO at Thomson Reuters (TRI), warns that "control freak" CMOs might have a hard time leaving their fingerprints off of every effort.

    The solution, however, is low-tech, the marketers say: Get the most out of younger employees familiar with new media by making them feel valued at the meeting table. "I've handled each turn of the technology change wheel by trusting younger people who are using it," Daly says. "I can't be expected to be noodling around in every space." She joins Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter & Gamble (PG), in stressing reverse mentoring as a way to both empower younger team members while refreshing CMOs working in the digital space.

    Reverse mentoring is not new, but how it is used can be improved. Stengel explains the distinction neatly: the CMO must trust younger employees while staying engaged enough to know the good ideas from the bad. Stengel wants to see more CMOs going straight into consumers' homes to directly build relationships, either in the flesh or through the digital space.

    In other words, the lip service reverse mentoring that goes on at many companies, in which an intern might "teach" Facebook to a seasoned exec over a couple summer sessions, is no longer adequate -- if it ever was.

    The number of CMOs in the IBM survey who were able to strike an ideal balance with technical and social media was disturbingly low to Stengel, the man once tasked with directing the world's largest ad budget while at P&G.

    "That's dangerous," Stengel says. "CMOs need to get personally involved. Do you need to spend 80% of your time blogging? No. But you need to put your feet in the water."

    Doing so might seem difficult to CMOs who don't recognize, as those in the IBM survey appear to do, that exploiting digital innovation actually means improving how we communicate with other people, even if it's through social media.

    CMOs can't pull out a crystal ball to predict the next major disruptive digital platform, but they don't have to stay caught in a constant game of catch-up. By investing in their relationships with coworkers from top to bottom now, chief marketers can put themselves in a solid position when the next innovation shockwave hits.