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‘Marketing is dead’: Kevin Roberts on the role of the marketer
Former global Saatchi & Saatchi boss, Kevin Roberts, is convinced marketing, and in particular the chief marketing officer (CMO) role, is 'dead' - and while companies including Coles and Seven have re-worked the title, they're still missing the point.
Roberts argues marketing has been replaced by creating, and the role of the marketer is no longer to build a brand, but to create a movement.
Roberts spoke at the World Business Forum in Sydney last week
“If you’re the chief marketing officer, that’s a dreadful kind of thing to be, because it’s got much more exciting and much bigger than marketing,” Roberts says.
“Creativity and curiosity are the defining factors for us moving forward, instead of marketing. We have to find new ways to involve and engage our audiences, because people are so good at smelling out marketing, knowing what is real and what might not be, and they just don’t buy it most of the time,” he says.
Instead, Roberts stresses that brands need to excite and stimulate consumers with curiosity.
“The key is curiosity, and we need brands to have that ingredient. This world is moving so fast, we need to be absolutely geared to not start with the answer and work back. We’ve got to start with the question,” he adds.
Companies have re-worked the CMO title, including Coles’ chief customer officer Amanda McVay, who replaced the position left vacant by CMO Lisa Ronson, and Seven’s chief marketing and audience officer, Melissa Hopkins, who replaced CMO Charlotte Valente, but Roberts insists the different title won’t change anything, unless the strategy changes.
However, arguably Coles and Seven’s strategies have changed. Coles’ transition to a chief customer officer (rather than a chief marketing officer) signaled a broader remit, with more of a focus on customer experience – which aimed to lead the brand’s marketing development and execution.
At Seven, Hopkins is responsible for driving audience numbers and growth across the company’s portfolio, with a deeper focus on audience research.
“Sure, it’s a different, flashy name,” Roberts says. “But the point is that marketing is dead, the CMO role is dead. They’re missing the point, we’ve got to give consumers more than marketing bullshit. We need to make magic.”
Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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What a load of twaddle.
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