The marketing function must be redesigned to direct disruption, rather than adapting to it, according to Gartner. There are three essential elements CMOs must consider when redesigning the marketing function to direct disruption.

During the opening keynote of the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, Gartner experts explored how CMOs can redesign the marketing function to harness the energy of disruptions such as GenAI.

“Constant waves of disruption have forced CMOs to adapt the building blocks of their function: People, processes and technology,” said Matt Moorut, senior director analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice.

He added: “However, disruptions are becoming more frequent and are likely to converge, meaning bigger impact to enterprises. CMOs need to build a marketing function that’s designed to harness the power of these waves and direct disruption themselves.”

When redesigning the marketing function to direct disruption, the three essential elements CMOs must consider include:

Addressing Technology and Talent Interdependencies to Harness GenAI

“CMOs must tackle the technology and talent interdependencies created by AI transformation,” said Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone, senior director, advisory, in the Gartner Marketing Practice.

She added: “AI readiness is not just a technology problem – it also requires a new approach to marketing talent.”

AI is regarded by many CMOs as a tool, but the marketing function of the future will see AI as an actor. For example, AI can be used as a tool to generate images. As AI shifts to an actor, it might suggest campaign ideas of its own.

AI will become more autonomous, more embedded, and more trusted by human employees. CMOs must focus on protecting their human employees from skill degradation caused by reliance on AI by developing employees’ human reasoning skills.

“As AI becomes a major component of every marketing team’s design, augmenting this with human reasoning skills will become a key differentiator,” said Moorut.

A New Approach to Cross-Functional Collaboration

The marketing function is involved in a growing number of cross-functional initiatives, making it harder for employees to focus on marketing priorities. Marketing teams are plagued by ”collaboration drag”: too many meetings, too many processes, too much feedback.

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“The natural tendency of the ‘adapt to deliver’ marketing function is to collaborate with other functions more and more,” said LaRocca-Cerrone. “CMOs must take a more selective approach to cross-functional collaboration.”

Reasserting Marketing’s Value Proposition

The marketing function is tasked with delivering growth, but to do this, it must deliver effective differentiation. This differentiation is particularly important for customer engagement and brand value and narrative.

“Marketing teams can use their audience understanding and their storytelling talents to direct perceptions. Many CMOs believe that marketing’s value add is growth, but the best method for impacting growth is through differentiation,” said LaRocca-Cerrone. “By understanding this, CMOs can redefine marketing’s value proposition to the organisation.”