Why the CMO and CIO are the ultimate power couple

RufusLeonard_LaurenceParkesToday, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience, and while 80% believe they deliver ‘superior experiences’, only 8% of customers actually agree with that statement, according to Forrester research. It calls this “digital sameness” – companies solving the same problems in the same ways over and over, therefore creating the same experiences. So, how can you prosper in this landscape of digital sameness?

Thirty years of helping brands like the BBC, the Gym Group and Pinsent Masons has taught us that if customer experience matches customer expectations, brand experience exists to create differentiation.

Brand experience involves identifying and investing in “hero” moments along this journey – specifically where your brand could credibly provide a unique experience – which will create a memorable and differentiated experience for your customers. Forrester also points out that brands with a strong brand experience command 79% higher purchase intent and an average of 45 more Net Promoter Score points than those who offer a lesser experience. This, ultimately, is what CMOs crave.

More than just efficient IT provisioning
Companies who create technology-driven differentiation see growth four times faster than the competition, so there’s no question of the importance of using technology to drive brand experience. Aligning around brand experience will help bring focus and priority to the CMO and chief information officer relationship to meet your customer’s digital expectations. Your platform is at the heart of this business-critical relationship.

The CIO needs to provide the blueprint and platform to deliver this experience in a way which manages costs, threats and risks to the business. The challenge is how.

How do you build an intelligent business core that is able to facilitate and orchestrate internal and external ecosystems, all while delivering experiences using data, content and insight from people, process and platforms? But that’s not all; it should also inform high-quality propositions faster than your competitors, as well as create operational efficiencies through automation which drive more contextually relevant customer experiences. A big ask?

Two options to drive relevant CX
The good news is you have options – commitment to a full enterprise stack, a vendor PaaS solution, a CMS that has some experience and headless features, distributed channel logic, or a centralised omnichannel experience API which you own.

Each comes with its own pros and cons. But if you want an option that lets you take control of your business experiences in a way that you own, is highly portable, open source and more easily maintained, for many modern businesses your best plan is a centralised omnichannel experience API (OX.api).

An OX.api framework provides the capabilities to curate the experiences the CMO craves across all of your channels through the solid technical engineering your CIO needs; adhering to architectural principles such as availability, data as an asset, interoperability, secure by design, resilience, and performance.

Bridging the gap
What a platform like this essentially allows you to do is connect. Connect what customers want with what technology can do. Connect your brand purpose to your tech stack. And connect the CMO’s agenda with the CIO’s agenda.

By connecting and powering the experiences the CMO craves, with tools and systems from the CIO, your brand can deliver the unique, meaningful experiences that customers are demanding. Providing a tremendous opportunity for your business to gain market share and drive growth.

Laurence Parkes is chief executive of Rufus Leonard