Hybrid glocal marketing structures: 57 % of CMOs tend to do this

Reshaping Global Engagement Operations. The CMO Council's latest study provides arguments for new thinking and action in the digital age. "More customer proximity & more brand for more business success" is the motto. In many cases, the future therefore belongs to hybrid organizational structures; extreme centralized or decentralized structures have had their day.

Global competition and new customer expectations require new organizational forms for global marketing

Marketing is being asked to be more agile, to create better customer experiences, and at the same time to guarantee growth, efficiency, and measurable effectiveness. The unmistakable demands for change and digital transformation culminate in the loudly chanted "disrupt or be disrupted". Radically change your organization or be left behind!

The CMO Council, the network of chief marketing officers with nearly 16,000 members from 110 countries, conducted a study this spring in collaboration with Worldwide Partners, one of the largest networks of owner-operated communications agencies, to determine what changes are needed in marketing for global brands at a time when the demand for customer centricity and personalization is at the top of the agenda. 350 marketing executives from around the world who are responsible for global brands participated in this study.

"Reshaping Global Engagement Operations," is the title of the study. It provides reasons for the call for new thinking and action. According to the study, the fear of missed opportunities (FOMO) or of falling behind in global competition is the main driver for change. The most important task of marketing is to ensure growth. "Successfully and quickly conquering markets worldwide" is named first by 40% of all CMOs.

However, CMOs are dissatisfied with what they have achieved so far, despite having already invested in new talent and technologies as part of the digital transformation. Goals are missed and opportunities are missed. The vast majority of senior marketers (77%) believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential with modern connected customers because they cannot fully meet their expectations.

Acting responsibly, ensuring safety, all-round service, and culturally relevant content are at the top of customers' lists of expectations. Relevance is not meant superficially; customers want to be addressed in their own language, their own world, in the context of their own culture and values.

The localization fire is not yet blazing

Even if tight budgets and efficiency criteria are only a

The frustration of CMO's with their globalization campaigns is understandable, as most global omnichannel campaigns are only realized with significant costs and time delays.

• Nearly two-thirds of global brand managers surveyed by the CMO Council gave their ability to adapt global messages and content to different markets and channels below average ratings.
• More than half of Marketeers (57%) attribute their unrealized customer opportunities to a lack of local insights.
• 42% of marketers admit to significant dissatisfaction with their current localization efforts.

A closer look reveals that the problems are mostly not to be found in the strategy, but rather are caused by the structure of the marketing organization.

A closer look reveals that the problems are mostly not to be found in the strategy, but rather are caused by the structure of the marketing organization.

The study therefore examined three operational structure models in detail: fully centralized (27%), fully decentralized (30 P%) and hybrid structures (30%).

Marketers in highly centralized companies regret that they do not really understand local market needs and are not close enough to their customers.
However, strong customer orientation is becoming more and more important and is absolutely necessary in order to be successful with the modern, networked customer.

And those in highly decentralized organizations cannot guarantee that a unified brand understanding will truly be successfully implemented and that the higher effort will actually pay off for the brand.

Trend towards the hybrid

The trend that emerged in the study was to move away from the extremes of completely centralized or completely decentralized models. The answer appears to be a hybrid structure - a centrally developed strategy that leverages local market intelligence in development and in execution. The CMO Council found that in hybrid structures, Marketeers are better able to understand the expectations of local customers, while also better able to communicate global strategies and goals. As a result, they also achieve better efficiency scores. Disadvantages still exist, but they are primarily related to a slow decision-making process rather than the quality of information, strategy and execution.
Marketing managers in global companies who believe in success boosts through customer orientation are therefore increasingly re-evaluating their internal structures; pure top-down approaches are losing their appeal.

Better synchronization of agency and brand organization needed

Agencies also need to up their game. According to the study, marketing managers are looking for new strength and inspiration from partners. While data-related tasks are being shifted more inward, companies are willing - at least outside Germany - to rely even more on external support for communications, from creative to media to live experiences and experiential engagement. The greatest value of agencies globally appears to be inspiration and creative thinking. 84% of respondents say they will continue to outsource just such work to agencies.

However, when it comes to designing complex processes and new structures, only 17% of CMOs believe they are in lockstep with their agency partners.
Marketeers are looking for agencies that can scale quickly, align with the client's business goals, and provide sufficient resources with the skills to identify and meet client expectations across the globe. 45% of CMO's expect agencies to break down both agency industry and corporate silos to strengthen enterprise-wide collaboration and realize process efficiencies.

The CMOs' self-reflections also reveal a new sense of responsibility for communicating business and communications requirements, and especially the overarching growth objectives, much more clearly to their own organization and agency partners alike.

Redesign of the global marketing organization: more customer proximity, more brand for more business success

Overall, then, this study does not necessarily propagate total radical change, but it is a call for dynamic further development of organizational structures, in which both the brand and the agency are aligned more closely with growth and business objectives, and the transformation from a product-centric to a customer-centric company is also carried out in global marketing.