Digging in data and spinning stories – CMOs at work

Interviews with leading marketing executives from global enterprises offer insights into their careers and daily business activities

New York | Heidelberg, 24 August 2016

A successful Chief Marketing Officer needs to be passionate about what he is doing and get that message out to people, states Seth Farbman, CMO of the digital music service Spotify, in an interview with Josh Steimle. The interview with Farbman is one of 29 that Steimle, author of Chief Marketing Officers at Work, conducted with leading marketing executives of various organizations when collecting material for his book. The result is a compilation of biographical anecdotes, career advice and professional insights into their daily business, published by Apress.

After realizing there was no book on the market that offered a comprehensive view on the profession of Chief Marketing Officer, the author decided to start collecting information. What characterizes the role of a CMO? What does it take to be a successful CMO? What challenges do CMOs face in today’s ever-changing and fast-paced business world? How do CMOs structure and work in their teams? Those are the questions Steimle was looking to answer when interviewing CMOs of companies such as PayPal, GE, Nestlé, and Expedia.

Farbman told Steimle that marketing is way more than selling a product to people. Instead, he says what makes him thrive is learning about people and providing them with what they need before they even become aware of it. What music do people listen to when standing in line at a supermarket? Or before they fall asleep? A huge pile of data is available to help Spotify’s leading marketer answer those kinds of questions, and Farbman uses the patterns found in that data to develop a narrative around the product. In order to anticipate people’s desires, he looks for ideas and inspiration outside of marketing – by observing people and trying to understand them. “You need to do a bit of digging in anthropology and make the customer feel connected,” he says.

Farbman’s account as well as the other interviews in Chief Marketing Officers at Work show how top marketing executives cope with and continuously adapt to changes in technology, language, and culture that affect their jobs. The sections offer an entertaining yet instructive behind-the-scenes look at the daily business of leading corporations, nonprofits, government entities, and startups, and are of highly informative value to marketing executives, aspiring marketing specialists and any other professionals who want to understand how marketers tick.

Josh Steimle is founder and CEO of MWI, a digital marketing agency that has worked with global firms like Sony, Symantec or LG as well as numerous SMEs and startups. Steimle has written over 200 articles for publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Time, and Fast Company. He is a TEDx speaker, has appeared as an expert commentator on national radio and TV, and is a regular speaker at marketing conferences and other industry events worldwide. Steimle is the director of the Hong Kong chapter of Startup Grind and has consulted with business and government leaders on matters of public policy related to entrepreneurship and startup ecosystems. He holds a Masters of Information Systems Management from Brigham Young University.

Josh Steimle
Chief Marketing Officers at Work
2016, 344 p.
Softcover € 26.99 (D) | £ 19.99 (A) | $ 30.00
ISBN 978-1-4842-1930-0
Also available as an eBook