Media consumers are rushing online in record numbers, and corporate marketers must go there too. CIOs and CMOs must work together to develop a marketing architecture that can analyze consumer behavior, help make marketing decisions, and automate customer interaction, content management, and publishing processes.

1. Perspective Dr. Michael Peterson
Volkmar Koch
Dr. Florian Gröne
Dr. Kiet Vo
Online Customers,
Digital Marketing
The CMO–CIO
Connection
Media consumers are rushing online in record numbers, and corporate
marketers must go there too. Done right, online marketing holds the promise
of higher profits and greater accountability, but it requires a sophisticated,
strongly aligned blend of marketing savvy and technological expertise. CIOs
and CMOs must work together to develop a marketing architecture that can
analyze consumer behavior, help make marketing decisions, and automate
customer interaction, content management, and publishing processes.
While some of this technology is already available, the solution market is in
flux, and farsighted caution is a must.

2. Going Digital ments expected to grow in the near
future, despite—or perhaps because
CIOs to build the technology to auto-
mate new marketing processes and
of—the current economic crisis. That’s provide real-time decision support.
because digital marketing promises
intelligent, individualized consumer The goal of every marketing effort is
targeting at a far lower cost than to drive profits, and digital marketing
traditional media. holds the promise not just of increased
Consumers of media have seen the profitability, but of better understand-
digital light, and they are shifting in In a Web 2.0 world, however, taking ing where those profits come from, and
ever-growing numbers to all kinds of part in that market isn’t simply a why. As The Four Pillars of Profit-
digital media channels—the Internet, matter of throwing some banner ads Driven Marketing, a Booz & Company
electronic messaging, online search, against a few likely Web sites and book (see “Resources”), discusses in
the social Web, blogs, podcasts, seeing what sticks. The many vir- depth, profit-driven marketing consists
mobile communications, and gaming tues of digital marketing—its speed, of four critical elements:
platforms. Given the shift, it’s no flexibility, interactivity, and account-
surprise that marketers are hot on ability—require a whole new set of • Building an analytical understand-
their heels, abandoning traditional marketing strategies and skills to ing of individual consumers’ behav-
media at a shocking rate. Online and make it work. And it demands a close ior, needs, and communication/
mobile are the only advertising seg- collaboration between CMOs and media usage patterns.
Exhibit 1
Building a Better Marketing IT Architecture
ONLINE ACCESS OFFLINE ACCESS
Social/
SEM/ Call Direct TV &
Web Syndi- Mobile E-mail Retail Print
SEO Center Mail Radio
cation
ACCESS CHANNEL INTEGRATION LAYER
Outbound/Campaign Inbound/Interaction
Analytics & Reporting Portfolio Optimization
Management Management
PROCESS AND WORKFLOW AUTOMATION LAYER
Online CMS Offline CMS
CONTENT MANAGEMENT LAYER
Customer Customer Customer Product
Data Mart 1 Data Mart 2 Media DB
DB 1 DB 2 DB 3 DB
DATA INTEGRATION LAYER
SEM = Search Engine Marketing SEO = Search Engine Optimization CMS = Content Management System DB = Database
Source: Booz & Company analysis
Booz & Company

3. • Leveraging decision-support tools Creating such an architecture is a Resources
that let marketers target custom- complex task, especially since the
ers 24/7 via the right channel, at solution market for many of its Leslie H. Moeller and Edward C.
the right time, and with the right components is far from mature. CIOs Landry, with Theodore Kinni, The Four
message. should tread carefully when evaluat- Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing: How
ing channel and content management to Maximize Creativity, Profitability, and
• Building embedded processes that platforms: The technology is going ROI (McGraw-Hill, 2009)
can orchestrate marketing messages through rapid innovation cycles as Christopher Vollmer, Always On: Adver-
and offers across channels, setting vendors try to integrate online and tising, Marketing, and Media in an Era of
relevant targets, and measuring offline offerings, and consolidation of Consumer Control (McGraw-Hill, 2008)
results. the vendor arena is only a matter of
time. To reduce risk, consider flexible Olaf Acker, Florian Gröne, and
• Creating an aligned organization best-of-breed options, including sys- Klaus Hölbling, “Beyond the Mass
that develops leadership, structures, tems offered on an on-demand basis. Mailing: Next-Generation Campaign
skill sets, and incentive systems Management in an Era of Saturated
geared toward the digital world. The process automation layer is a Markets.” http://www.booz.com/media/
safer bet, as many such modules are uploads/BeyondtheMassMailing.pdf
Given those needs, CIOs face a daunt- available as part of integrated market-
Roman Friedrich, Florian Gröne,
ing task. They must create a single ing or CRM suites. Finally, look for
Klaus Hölbling, and Michael Peterson,
view of all their customers out of a consistent, flexible, open platform
“The Rise of Mobile Marketing:
a bewildering variety of constantly for the channel, workflow, and data
New Opportunities for Consumer
updated data sources, from legacy integration layers. These elements
Companies and Mobile Operators.”
systems to online customer interaction form the vital backbone of a robust
http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/
data. They must use that information service-oriented architecture, and that
Rise_Mobile_Marketing.pdf
to make specific offers to individual is key to remaining flexible as ongoing
customers based on their value to the innovation forces CIOs to reconsider
company—both in the past and in the their component choices—and it will!
future. They must construct a digital
marketing architecture and workflows Implementing the marketing technol-
that not only integrate every off- and ogy needed to drive profits and track
online channel but also orchestrate results involves a significant amount
how and when to communicate with of work. And that doesn’t include
individual customers, both outbound managing all the technology vendors,
and inbound. And they must build ad agencies, online agencies, mar-
a marketing platform that can help keting boutiques, and media part-
automate the process of publishing a ners involved in a successful digital
consistent set of marketing messages marketing effort. The best solution:
and content through every market- a “digital marketing office” that can
ing channel, from classic TV spot to act as an intermediary between the
Facebook app to YouTube video to business and the marketing and IT
Google AdWords to blog entry. Exhibit organizations to manage the demand
1 suggests the outlines of a comprehen- for added marketing functionality,
sive marketing IT architecture design, while orchestrating critical relation-
beginning with the data architecture ships with partners and suppliers.
and content management platform and
leading up to the individual online and It isn’t enough to follow your custom-
offline channel platforms. ers into the Digital Age. You need to
go there with them.
Booz & Company

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Contact Information
Berlin Munich
Dr. Florian Gröne Dr. Michael Peterson
Senior Associate Partner
+49-30-88705-844 +49-89-54525-640
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Frankfurt Stuttgart
Volkmar Koch Dr. Kiet Vo
Principal Associate
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volkmar.koch@booz.com kiet.vo@booz.com
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