Brands have a small time window to serve up the right experience: Brad Rencher

Interview with Senior VP & General Manager, Digital marketing, Adobe

One doesn't have six or eight weeks to figure out which customer to target, Brad Rencher tells Ankita Rai

The rise of digital marketing and the resultant disconnect in the executive ranks have led to a growing tension between the chief marketing officer (CMO) and the chief information officer (CIO). Who among the two is best suited for the role of a chief digital officer (CDO)? What are the implications of digital technology on the role of a CMO?

It is not the question of CMO versus CIO versus CDO. You could see a chief marketing officer evolving into the chief digital officer more easily. However, the rise of the digital CMO is due to the fact it is easier for them to step up to the role of the champion of consumers. Marketers, because of their skills and technology, have a better feel for what is required to be done. But I don't see CMOs and CIOs at odds. I see them as partners in the digital transformation. Once a CIO of luxury goods maker Chanel told me, in the past, the relationship between CMOs and CIOs used to be a shotgun marriage, but not anymore. They now work together in a collaborative environment.

A chief digital officer can come from any part of the organisation. A chief digital officer or chief experience officer is somebody who is responsible for end to end customer experience. For me the characteristics of people who are going to lead digital transformation is someone who is open to new ideas and is constantly questioning the way things are done. Whether it is CMO, CDO, CIO, it is about organisational design. It doesn't matter what you call them. In the end you have to meet customer expectations. I think if someone really needs to be the customer experience officer, it should be the CEO because everyone eventually reports to the CEO. That really is the future. A CEO has to be the champion of the customers. Any digital transformation has to start at the CEO level.

Today customers expect to engage with brands anytime, anywhere. Yet, it is surprising how unprepared most marketers are in implementing cross-channel marketing programmes. What are the challenges marketers are facing in implementing cross-channel strategy?

Consumers are already omni-channel. They are using various devices such as mobile, tablet, laptop to connect with brands. But many organisations are not ready. The biggest mistakes companies do is the lack of data sharing among various departments such as customer support team, marketing and store managers. So there is a customer support team, that doesn't talk to marketing team or store managers. All of them need to collaborate to make omni-channel work. The technology industry can play a key role in the transformation. We are part of the problem. At present, we have a patchwork of technology that doesn't enable data to flow from place to place. So a technology tool for social marketers doesn't interact with search marketing, display marketing, email marketing and web content management. We have to take out the patchwork of technology. That's what Adobe marketing cloud is all about. We enable date to flow through different channels.

Digital and social still remain distinct activities within marketing teams and many find it challenging to measure the ROI of social campaigns. In such a scenario, how difficult or easy is it to convince a CFO to go for one?

The counting of Twitter followers and how many 'likes' you have on your Facebook page was the first chapter of social marketing. You cannot justify your business on the basis of just that. It is a good measure but eventually it has to convert into marketing RoI. While Facebook is a very good engagement platform, it sometimes can be difficult to measure RoI. For instance, consumer may like the product she sees on Facebook but does not immediately buys it. It may happen that the same consumer later searches for the same product on Google and goes on to purchase it. So marketers may give credit to Google because that is the last thing a customer did before making the purchase. In such cases you have to be really thoughtful as to what is working from the investment point. At Adobe we have a tool called Adobe analytics, which can measure a consumer activity throughout the purchase journey. It can even measure marketing campaigns that drove the purchase.

The ever-increasing share of mobile in transaction has made it the go-to platform for marketers. What are the misconceptions about mobile marketing?

The interesting thing about mobile or wearables is that it is a much more intimate experience. Marketers have to understand that when thinking about mobile. Just because you can market to a mobile consumer, doesn't mean you should. A consumer will not buy from you if you send her a dozen messages a day. You have to design a programme and use data to understand what kind of messages will resonate with the consumer. Location and context are very important when targeting customers on mobile. This is not the case with desktop or laptops. Thus, what should be marketed, what the context is and how you use consumer data are key imperatives to mobile marketing.

To deliver an omni-channel experience, mobile strategy should be integrated with offline and online. So if the customer approaches your store, you should be able to recoginse her through her online shopping history. You have to have a platform that connects all the channels.

With the rise of digital, the speed with which marketers must make decisions about their customers has also become important. What is the ideal time to respond to a customer?

You don't have six or eight weeks to figure out whether I should be your customer or not. When a customer visits your website or your mobile app, you only have milliseconds to understand if she is a return visitor and figure out her purchase pattern etc. You have to have an infrastructure and a platform in place to deal in milliseconds. Your organisation should be able to bring all the information about customers in 300 milliseconds. Brands have a 300 millisecond window to serve up the right experience to the user, whether she is clicking a link or downloading an app.

THE REAL TIME-MANAGER

• As senior vice-pesident and general manager, Rencher is responsible for driving Adobe's digital marketing business. He palyed key role in strategic Adobe acquisitions, including the January 2012 acquisition of Efficient Frontier, a leader in optimising digital advertising across search, display and social media
   
• He joined Adobe in January 2008 as VP corporate development of omniture and was instrumental in the evolution of the digital marketing suite. Before Adobe, he worked at Morgan Stanley as part of the technology investment-banking team
   
• He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University