Consultancy offering ‘part-time CMOs’, Orange Sky, shuts down
A consultancy offering part-time chief marketing officers to mid-sized businesses is closing its doors, with the founder saying the market simply wasn’t ready for the service.
Raz Chorev founded Orange Sky in February 2016, saying “marketing is too important to be left to marketing departments”.
Orange Sky had CMOs for hire
Orange Sky said boards of mid-sized enterprises could hire a corporate marketing executive for the price of a marketing graduate.
“Orange Sky chief marketing officers work with CEOs and boards of mid-sized enterprises to take their company to the next level. We’re not consultants or agency-type people. We’re commercially focussed marketers, working alongside the management team on a part-time basis,” the company said of its services.
Chorev has since conceded, however, that there is a perception gap between what marketers think they do, and the value businesses place on their function.
Chorev: The market’s not ready
“Bottom line is – I was too early. I still believe that every business can benefit from the experience of a senior marketer, to take control and set up a marketing function. Every marketer I ever spoke with, agrees. However, the market is saying otherwise. The market is not yet ready. There’s a fundamental gap between what marketers think the role is, and what business owners (many, not all) believe,” Chroev said in an e-mail.
“A similar gap exists throughout the marketing profession, but I don’t have the time and resources to fill that gap or wait until the market takes care of it.”
Orange Sky said there may ‘never be a need’ for a full-time CMO
Chorev said he will now channel his efforts into Orange Sky’s business parter Stylequity, a strategy consultancy for private businesses.
“I’ll continue to use my skills, experience and network, to propel mid-sized businesses to previously unimaginable new heights.”
So “marketing is too important to be left to marketing departments”, so let’s leave it to a few part-timers.
Whoever thought that was a good idea was mis-guided.
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“unimaginable” is the word.
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The irony is that he’s trying to market a marketing service with the most confused and self-undermining positioning I’ve seen in a long time. Marketers generally do have a slightly inflated opinion of their value and take themselves way too seriously, but that doesn’t mean you need to give the field an almighty kick in the balls straight into an own-goal. Also, if you’re hiring a CMO for a mid-sized business, you don’t want someone for one or two days a week, which is what the “price of a marketing graduate” line implies.
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It is massively popular in the US. But what would they know.
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I was just about to write the exact same comment – was never going to work
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The US is a bigger and more mature market. Their definition of Mid-Market is our major corporates. That could be one difference. There are many more..
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The sheer lack of self-awareness is staggering. Mr Chorev, you talk a big game.
The idea is potentially right. The timing may also be right.
But if a company is going to outsource its CMO, they want proven talent. Talent with a track record of growing brand and sales. Talent well regarded in the industry. Talent that doesn’t try to define themselves by deriding others.
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As someone who has worked for a number of US based businesses, I can assure you that what works well over there doesn’t always work well here.
So yes, what would they know?!
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A lot of the market just don’t know what a CMO is either, that’s our own jargon.
Any part time CMO’s flopping about looking for a new home might like to become a ‘Suit’?