The role of the CMO in highly symbolic industries

A powerful national connotation and an international positioning. For any brand, this always represents a momentous cultural challenge, one that corporate marketing has to factor in, both internally, as far as managing teams, and externally, in dealing with customer relationships. In the second article in the Profession CMO series, this was the topic of our conversation with Davide Zanolini, the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communication at the Piaggio Group.  

Piaggio is certainly one of the most iconic Italian companies, thanks to its history, its products and its brands.  A symbol of Italian lifestyle around the world. In a company that not only embodies its own values, but the values of an entire nation, what are the specificities of the role and the competences of the CMO? 

CMOs at companies like Piaggio have to understand how to preserve and exploit the history and the values of their brands in a future-forward way, in the awareness that in many cases a brand embodies the image of the entire country. This is a tremendous responsibility that requires great sensitivity as far as brand management, but at the same time a great passion for researching the history of the company, and a deep knowledge of the spheres where future action is possible without compromising decades of past experience. In other words, you need to know the past, study it, interpret it, and glean inspiration from it, while having the courage to change without creating disruption. So, the CMO becomes the keeper of the keys to the past, as well as the primary impetus for future development. The role must combine historical rigor with curiosity about the next big thing, tradition with innovation. You can’t grow old while being chained to the past, resting on your laurels, but by the same token you don’t have to innovate at all costs and run the risk of losing the lion’s share of your past legacy along the way.  When brands have powerful ties to their home country, the CMO also has to make sure that the classic stereotypes people associate with those brands don’t become their only reference. This is especially true in foreign markets, where we would see brand banalization. Being an icon of Italian lifestyle also means continually being able to put a new spin on that image, keeping it fresh and contemporary. The dolce vita that the Vespa represents can’t just be about Roman Holiday. Today’s dolce vita is something the whole world loves; a lifestyle made of elegance, fun and freedom of expression, to be found in new canons and channels of communication. 

Doing business in international markets means interacting with consumers, distributors, and competitors with different cultural backgrounds, sometimes poles apart from ours here in Italy. How does this necessary intercultural interchange impact the role of the CMO and the work you do?  

The intercultural connection is fundamental for CMOs who work on a global scale, and it should continually spark new stimuli. The greatest challenge today is having global brands that speak in one voice all over the world.  A single, global Instagram page for a brand that will be appealing to everyone, with followers everywhere: this is an example of something which many aspire to, but few actually achieve. But the solution isn’t to stoop to compromise to make the message acceptable to everyone. The challenge is to craft a message that’s understandable and appealing to everyone from the moment of conception. That calls for constant engagement with local cultures, to get to know their habits and tastes, as well as cultural or religious restrictions, to avoid offending the sensibilities of diverse communities. It means having detailed knowledge of local products and how they communicate. It means interpreting your own culture to highlight the features and values that are universally recognized, that resonate across regions.  Today, for example, there’s no doubt that “Made in Italy” represents added value.  But it can’t be dictated. Every market attaches a different meaning – and consequently a different value – to Made in Italy.  The important thing is to ensure that there’s a general perception of the features that differentiate Italian products from local products, for instance. That means the CMO has to have a profound respect for local cultures, and realize what would be considered relevant in these contexts. 

Often when a company embodies the culture, tastes and lifestyle of a country, it runs the risk of being very self-referential. But exposure to different countries and cultures can spark new ideas about products and processes, in particular as they relate to communications. How can the CMO guide this continuous interchange and facilitate the marketing team in absorbing an assortment of stimuli?  

The role of marketing, in general, has always involved working to bring the viewpoint of the outside world inside the company, often mediating a self-referential view of the company itself. This function is more critical than ever in today’s business scenario, where marketing must no longer convince customers to buy a given product, but rather interpret their needs to offer a satisfying customer experience. That means the CMO is the first one to step into the shoes of the audience to convey customers’ needs to the company, while ensuring that the whole marketing team does the same. To make this happen, CMOs have to facilitate the rotation of positions on the marketing into different functions and even different countries. They have to be contaminated by other business sectors or product categories, without being afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone.  They have to connect and interact with other companies and business contexts, even those that seem vastly different from their own. Today, sharing experiences is one of the fundamental legacies of the corporate culture. The richer and more assorted these experiences are, the more intense the stimuli will be. So what companies need are transgenerational, international teams with backgrounds in training and experiences that aren’t necessarily always vertical and specialized. The key to the future, what will really make the difference in marketing, is creativity, especially in communication, the choice of messaging and the channels to use to transmit it. And by definition, creativity knows no age, no gender, and above all, no borders. 

link first article