The second-annual Aberdeen Group CMO Summit is next week (Sept 9 & 10) in San Francisco. In preparation for my opening remarks, I thought that it would be interesting to review my notes from last year’s event – one year and (in marketing/dog years) a lifetime ago.  Below are some of my observations and key takeaways from last year’s event:

1) Organizational mission/ethos guides marketing decisions – last year’s speakers gave several compelling examples of how the organizational mission/ethos guides decision making, particularly in product design and the use of social media:

• Wal-Mart’s Cathy Halligan talked about how the ethos of “everyday low prices” improves the cost of living for everyone.  She attributed Wal-Mart’s success in social media to “customers helping customers”; customers share experiences, rate and review products to help other customers save money.
• Jeff Hayzlett from Kodak discussed how guiding principles drove the design and development of products (in this case the Kodak Zi6 Digital Camcorder and wireless picture frame products) – “press one button and we do the rest.”
• Patrice Varni from Levi’s highlighted the importance of brand values as a driver of their Project Runway 501 Design Challenge.
• Stephan Chase of Marriott discussed the importance of “philosophical fit” – new programs (e.g. social marketing, web 2.0, whatever) need to be authentic, specific to the organization and designed in the context of the organizations guiding principles if they stand a chance of being successful. ‘Cutting and pasting’ someone else’s success will not work with increasingly discerning and cynical customers.

2) Challenge the Status Quo – when Paul DePodesta joined the Oakland A’s as an in-house saberemetrician, he challenged over 100 years of collective baseball “wisdom.”  He started by asking the naive questions – “if we weren’t already doing it this way, how would we start?” Paul introduced a philosophy of managing to the process, not necessarily to the outcomes.  In baseball and in marketing, he suggested the end does not justify the means.  A good outcome as a result (or in spite of) a bad process is not repeatable. Managers must seek out, develop, nurture and support processes that will ensure repeatable and predictable bad outcomes.  He observed: “a long habit not thinking a thing wrong makes it look right.”  The real killer is a good outcome driven from a good result – can success be repeated next time, or were you just lucky?  His advice for repeatable success:

• Measure, Measure, Measure – where are your subjective assumptions? Eliminate the subjective and remove the emotional obstacles – what are you attached to?  Players, ideas… campaigns? If something is not performing as expected, evaluate your options objectively.
• Be mindful of affirmation bias, or the tendency to focus on facts that reinforce opinions.
• Don’t fall victim to physical appearance bias – don’t draw conclusions based solely on appearance. For example, in baseball, Kevin Youkilis:

He has excelled despite a physique that led many observers to underestimate his athletic ability: he was called “roly-poly” by his high school coach, “pudgy” by his college coach, a “fat kid” by general manager Billy Beane… Known for his extraordinary ability to get on base, Youkilis (while still a minor leaguer) was nicknamed “The Greek God of Walks” in the best-selling book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. A Gold Glove Award-winning first baseman, he holds baseball’s all-time record for most consecutive errorless games at first base.

• Understand the key metrics driving your business and learn to separate the signals from the noise – Paul arguably reshaped baseball by focusing on a single stat –- on-base percentage. That is, getting runners in a position to score. The flashy stuff like homeruns and stolen bases are sometimes an impediment to scoring.  He challenged us to think about the on-base percentage metric, a single key indicator of success, for our businesses.  In doing these things, Paul warned us about confusing causation and correlation.

3) Correlated to challenging the status quo is having the discipline to kill your sacred cows – when Jeff Hayzell took over marketing for Kodak, he ended some long-standing programs with deep internal emotional attachment (e.g. sponsorship of the Olympics) in favor of new opportunities with the PGA. Marketing leaders must have the discipline to challenge the norm and take quick decisive action.

4) The rising importance of the scientific method in marketing. Impressive stats, great delivery, “looks the part”, initiative feel for how the game is played, traded every two years… star athlete or CMO? With all the talk about baseball, the obvious parallels emerged and several presenters hammered home the point that marketing is no longer a “black art”, where past experience and intuition rule. Marketers are now expected to be equally proficient in scientific methods such as hypothesis testing and empirical observation. Tomorrow’s marketer is expected to be “quant in a qualitative world”.

As I reflect on these observations and the continued conversations that I’ve had with CMO’s over the past year, I’ve observed several additional trends that will be sure to influence the conversation next week (more in a later post). As I put together my opening remarks, I’d be interested in hearing from you.  How has marketing evolved over the past year? What have you learned? What’s working? What’s not? Leave a comment or drop me a line @andrew_boyd.

Again, we have a phenomenal line-up of speakers and a great agenda for this year’s event. If you are interested in a comp ticket, please let me know.