[REPRINT] Super-charge the Journey to Customer-Centric Culture

Synopsis. With short tenures relative to others in the C-Suite, the role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is increasingly challenging. They must shift strategies and resources from platform to platform to match the ever-changing preferences of diverse customer cohorts. They must ensure that brand promises remain authentic and relevant in markets that are noisier and more crowded than ever. However, these challenges also present a unique opportunity for CMOs to renew their value propositions by being intentional about taking the lead in a critical transformation: guiding their companies through the structural transition from a tangible to intangible value exchange with today's discerning customers. As global economic activity and demand continues this seismic shift, CMOs are uniquely positioned to transcend traditional marketing boundaries to spearhead this evolution. To learn more order “The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life” at all major booksellers.

The time to act is now, and those who embrace this change will future-proof their careers and their companies. The marketers who adopt this new model will be indispensable resources, the ones to shape the future of marketing by helping their companies create truly unique selling propositions, and defensible competitive advantages and deliver value in ways that transcend traditional product and brand factors.

As the digital marketing landscape becomes increasingly commoditized, the future of marketing is experiential, human-centered, and customer-driven. To reset, rejuvenate, and future-proof their careers, marketers must take accountability for their own professional development. This requires upskilling in areas that go beyond traditional marketing tactics and tools. Marketers must embrace the experiential commerce model and integrate customer experience and customer-centric behaviors into the very fabric of their marketing strategies, making them an organic part of a new customer-centric commercial model.

CASE-IN-POINT: Reimagining Marketing and Sales for Experiential Commerce BOLD MOVE: The Customers for Life Imperative. The Shift: Experiential Commerce

[WHITE PAPER] With artificial intelligence (AI) poised to automate much of digital marketing, marketers risk being removed from the value chain entirely unless they take decisive action. At the same time, the tools that once differentiated careers—Google Ads, Facebook, HubSpot, Marketo—are now widely accessible, eroding their competitive advantage. Marketers who survive and thrive in this environment will not simply be digital experts; they will be strategic leaders who guide their organizations to become structurally, culturally, and commercially rebuilt around the customer. These leaders will leverage AI and other emerging technologies not as ends but as tools to create meaningful, defensible value.This white paper explores why marketing careers are at risk, outlines the transformative changes required to future-proof marketing roles, and provides a roadmap for marketers to shift from transactional campaign execution to leading the charge in Experiential Commerce.

CASE-IN-POINT: When Touchpoints Become Painpoints, it’s Time for a Muda, Mura, and Muri Intervention REFERENCE: “The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life”| Operational (OPS) Bold Move #11: Mitigate Systemic Deviations

CASE-IN-POINT: Winning through Customer Experience: Make your HR & CX organizations BFFs REFERENCE: “The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life” | Organizational (ORG) Bold Move #7: Embed Principles into People Processes

An excerpt from a full article originally published with the Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, this article explores a transformative approach to customer experience ROI and value, positioning it not only as a catalyst for growth but also as a safeguard for a company's most valuable assets—its customers. Through the integration and symbiotic relationship between the Earned Growth Rate (EGR) metric with the Customer Value-at-Risk (CVaR) metric, the framework provides a holistic method for evaluating customer experience and related Customer Excellence investments.

Synopsis. Return on investment and value aren’t the same thing— ROI is a calculation, and articulating value is a conversation. Through the integration of customer experience management with customer success, customer engagement, and customer care into the new unifying discipline of Customer Excellence, a new financial “Why” for CX emerges in the form of a multi-faceted financial Value Narrative. Collectively, in concert with marketing and sales, these functions ensure that newly acquired customers not only achieve their desired outcomes and maximize value realization but also ensure that companies can break even and deliver profitable returns relative to their initial acquisition investments.