The average tenure of a CMO today is 28 months. That’s right — just over two years according to a report issued by Spencer Stuart, and described here by Frank Reed in a recent WebProNews post. While this is up slightly from last year, it still makes the CMO job one of the shortest-tenured roles in the executive suite.

Clearly when times get tough, it’s not surprising to see changes in marketing. But, what is happening at the top level of our largest corporations illustrates the tremendous amount of change taking place in the marketing function – the likes of which pundits like David Meerman Scott and John Jantsch have been talking about for quite some time now.

Dating as far back as 2004, Spencer Stuart identified several contributing factors for the high CMO turnover, and among them “a disconnect between the skills required of today’s CMO and those of the past.” It’s shocking that after working their way up the ladder, some executives would find their skills have not kept pace with business needs. Unfortunately, innovations in marketing have only accelerated the past few years.

Since 2004, a wave of new Web technologies have been introduced and made available to consumers for the first time (largely for free). All sorts of on-line discussion forums, Web directories, wikis and product review sites have sprung up, enabling consumers to find, create and socialize information across the Web fast.

A whole new generation of digital consumers is also coming of age, connecting and sharing on social networking sites like Facebook. The “echo boomers” are gradually displacing baby boomers whose consumption habits in any event appear to be aging less gracefully than they are. And, at the same time, the economy has slowed, leading consumers to question brand loyalties and scrutinize purchasing decisions more closely.

The new tools and desire to use them have created unprecedented levels of transparency not only in consumer markets, but also in traditionally opaque business-to-business markets. Today, over 90% of all on-line and off-line purchasing decisions start with a search of the Web. Buyers in significantly increased numbers are finding, researching, and comparing products on-line. But it’s not just that buying and consumption habits are changing — they are changing at warp speed. 

The relative isolation of buyers just a few years ago made it much easier for companies to meter-out their market communication across carefully controlled broadcast channels. They communicated in a virtual monotone to a mass audience – via static websites, press releases, emails, and advertising. Messages were broadcast with no real intention to engage individuals in a conversation. For the most part, customers got information that marketers wanted them to get, but customers themselves had virtually no voice at all. 

Things really changed with Twitter and the crush of social media tools that followed. Twitter wasn’t the first or most innovative social media tool, but like a lot of disruptive technologies it sparked sharp debate between enthusiasts and skeptics about the importance and relevance of our growing digital connectedness. Twitter also allowed good and bad information to go viral and spread rapidly.

Since Twitter, so many new tools have cropped up around the micro-blogging service that Brian Solis took the effort on his PR2.0 blog to chronicle about 100 of them. If only marketing were limited to Twitter, our changing world would be magically finite and easier to digest, but unfortunately this is not so.

Today, many companies (not just their CMOs) find themselves at a cross roads. Their executives are probably feeling a growing uneasiness from the need to do something different in marketing but lack of clarity about what to change first or next because the rules have changed. They need to connect with customers in new ways, but old-school marketing tactics are too clumsy and ineffective to serve them well. Of all the avenues provided by new social media and digital marketing technologies, which ones are most promising for them? Which should they pursue, and in what order?   How should success be measured?

These are tough questions and the reality is that in the new world of digital marketing and social media it might take some amount of resource and experimentation to figure out what is right for the business.  I like the “Google rule” when it comes to this – spend 20% of your time investigating new, innovative ideas.  Then, relentlessly execute with the remaining 80%. 
But to keep pace with their markets, companies can’t go it alone. I suspect most will need to look outside the four walls of their own business and develop new ways to “sense and respond” to customer sentiments. On the Web, you can’t be everywhere, all of the time, so marketing will need to adapt new strategies that help them learn from customers while they leverage the eyes and ears of their biggest brand advocates to help guide the way.

As usual, marketers need to keep a watchful eye on competitors’ digital marketing tactics, but more so they need to do their homework and seek out the best and brightest ideas from experts who can help.  Maybe this is why CMO turnover is so high in the first place – marketing is perceived as being too inward focused and preoccupied with day-to-day tasks that they are incapable of bringing fresh new ideas into the organization. 

I’m convinced the CMO job doesn’t need to be a revolving door, but the marketing discipline does need to reinvent itself.  It’s clearly no time to cocoon behind closed doors, but it won’t work to simply mimic what others are doing either.  I’ll be writing more soon about strategies to personalize your brand using digital marketing techniques, and I’d like to hear from you.  If you agree or disagree with the points I raise here, let me know.  What digital marketing strategies are you using?  What is working or not working?  How are you measuring success?