CIO vs. CMO: Who Owns What?

CMO and CIO roles explained

To understand how businesses navigate technology purchases, it helps to know the roles and responsibilities of the CMO and the CIO.

What is the CMO’s role in an organization?

The chief marketing officer is responsible for planning, developing and implementing the organization’s marketing strategy, including brand identity and advertising. They also handle the web design process, trade shows, email marketing campaigns, promotions, social media marketing, events and more. 

Many of these marketing responsibilities include digital technology, such as high-end computers for graphic design, external technology vendors for advertising, CRM systems, big data solutions and artificial intelligence tools. 

In some organizations, the CMO role is combined with sales functions, including new-business development, distribution channel management and sales team management. The role may even spill over into product development and customer service. 

The CMO’s focus is external. This executive communicates the organization’s marketing message to current and potential customers to increase brand awareness, improve market perception, and ultimately increase sales and boost profitability.

What is the CIO’s role in an organization?

The chief information officer’s responsibilities include planning, deploying and maintaining information technology (IT) systems and operations. The CIO may have some or all of the following responsibilities:

• Managing software development needs
• Purchasing the best business phone systems
• Maintaining network, device and data security
• Instituting IT policies, procedures and best practices throughout the organization 
• Monitoring local area networks and internet connectivity
• Supervising individual computer and mobile device setups and permissions
• Handling database setup and security
• Implementing firewalls and virtual private networks
• Installing antivirus solutions and other breach-protection measures

The CIO’s focus is both internal and external. They ensure employees have continuous, streamlined use of hardware, software and networks. They also aim to protect the company’s technology assets from cybercriminals.

CMOs and CIOs may have conflicting motives

CMOs and CIOs are typically analytical and responsible for crucial functions within their budget constraints. However, the CIO may be more cost-conscious because technology is typically seen as an expense to be minimized. In contrast, the CMO may justify higher expenditures with the potential for creating additional revenue. The executives’ conflicting goals are at the root of this difference.

CMO goals

CMOs may seek control over marketing-related technologies because they want to implement the best tools to support the organization’s marketing processes. CMOs may have the following goals:

• Reach potential customers: CMOs want to create a positive, engaging experience that’s consistent across various marketing channels, including mobile.
• Empower their marketing team: CMOs want to empower their marketing teams to adapt readily to ever-changing consumer demands and preferences, and they don’t want to rely on IT to make those changes.
• Make quick decisions: CMOs may want to make quick decisions to adjust to changing market conditions. 

CIO goals

CIOs have different goals, including the following: 

• Keep the big picture in mind: The CIO is usually more concerned about the big picture. For example, while a CMO may push for a stand-alone solution that solves a specific problem, the CIO might be concerned about how the proposed technology purchase would integrate with existing hardware and software.
• Make informed decisions: CIOs may be more deliberate in their decision-making because they must consider the entire organization’s well-being from a technological and cybersecurity perspective.

Why conflict may be inevitable

Myriad digital and tech-related marketing tools entice companies with their features and benefits, and the tool you select for the job will substantially affect your organization’s productivity and marketing return on investment (ROI).

For example, dozens of business intelligence and analytics tools fuel marketing programs that provide actionable data about a business’s target audience, competitive landscape, opportunities and more. The CMO likely would be interested in seeing how these tools could benefit an organization’s marketing strategy. 

CIOs, however, are focused primarily on risk management and security. When CMOs implement solutions that facilitate better marketing outcomes but introduce network vulnerabilities, conflict is inevitable. 

CMO-CIO collaboration is crucial

The only genuine solution to the conflicting motives of CMOs and CIOs is enhanced workplace collaboration. Effective collaboration in the form of data and analytics integration has broken down silos in other departments, such as sales and marketing, whose motives can also differ. 

The better organizations can break down silos and promote streamlined information sharing, communication and cooperation, the more effective the organization will be at meeting its objectives while satisfying everyone, including executives, various departments, team leaders, employees and customers. 

Modern-day CIOs and CMOs can’t work in isolation. Without input from the CIO, a CMO might implement technology that proves disastrous for the company’s security. Likewise, a CIO might not choose the best marketing technology without a clear picture of the organization’s strategic direction, marketing goals and business requirements. 

When they communicate and collaborate well, marketing and IT can work together to boost an organization’s success. Marketing technology produces massive amounts of data, and the IT department can manage and translate that data into actionable insights. 

How to create a streamlined, collaborative CIO-CMO process

If your organization wants to cultivate a better relationship between marketing and IT functions by creating shared ownership of marketing technology investments and assets, these key strategies can serve as your roadmap for success:

1. Always map your investment priorities to your business strategy. Which areas of focus hold the most promise for boosting revenue? For example, instead of making massive investments in technology and infrastructure to analyze all data, identify the key performance indicators that are best for driving results and focus on these areas first to minimize total costs. By prioritizing investments based on real business needs, you’ll get better engagement and buy-in from key executives and top-level management.
2. Balance speed, cost and acceptance. If you rush implementation or prioritize low costs, you may end up choosing the wrong technology. Ultimately, you’ll spend more cleaning up such mishaps than if you had conducted comprehensive planning in the first place.
3. Focus on frontline engagement and capabilities. Your technology must be user-friendly. Include any technology’s frontline users in the planning and decision-making process to ensure new solutions won’t interrupt established workflows or be too complex for practical use.
4. Use each executive’s expertise as needed. CMOs should know that it’s crucial for new technology to be secure and to fit within the current system. When considering new technology, they should consult with the CIO to ensure it meets requirements. In turn, CIOs must understand that the marketing and sales departments have specific needs. As such, the technology must be functional and user-friendly. 

CMOs and CIOs may have conflicting motives and vested interests in tech-decision ownership. However, there’s a far greater value in effective collaboration and shared ownership in marketing technology and its underlying infrastructure.