I am excited to announce that after more than two decades as an executive and leader in digital marketing, eCommerce, social media marketing, and business technology, I have joined Forrester as a Vice President, Principal Analyst serving CMOs. One of the main reasons I decided to join Forrester was that I had been a client for more than nine years and had great experiences using Forrester reports and analyst interactions to achieve my business goals and objectives at Newell Rubbermaid and US Department of the Treasury, IRS. My relationship with Forrester goes even further back, as I briefed Forrester on my Intel and Dell products and technologies back in the 1990s. Also, it turned out that I knew more people at Forrester than any other firm . . . so as the old saying goes, I liked and respected the company so much as a client that I decided to join.

Another reason I joined Forrester, and the most important one, is to help CMOs and senior marketing executives solve problems in marketing to today’s consumers. In a world of digital disruption, ultra-connected consumers, and an ever-evolving customer life cycle, the challenge and complexity of marketing to consumers has never been greater. I believe that to overcome these challenges, CMOs are going to have to accelerate their innovation efforts and become digital disruptors in their target markets to succeed.

With that in mind, here are some questions I will be working on as I research CMO-led marketing innovation:

  1. How do CMOs define marketing innovation, and what role are they playing in driving it?
  2. How do CMOs drive innovation in different organizational cultures, ranging from experimental to risk-averse?
  3. What models, processes, and frameworks are CMOs using to drive marketing innovation?
  4. What are CMOs budgeting for innovation now, and how much do they expect to grow their innovation budget in the future?

These four questions will lead to many others. This is only a start to my journey with Forrester and researching CMO-led marketing innovation, but it's one that I expect will be ongoing for quite awhile. If you see consumer-focused marketing innovation programs that you feel are changing the market, please send them in my direction.

Finally, I am very active in social media. I talk about areas that interest me, including digital marketing, technology, eCommerce, social media, sports, entertainment, and cool science fiction. Feel free to engage with me on the following social networks:

Twitter: @bwdumars

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dumars

And I have created two paper.li digital daily papers that you might find of interest:

The Forrester Insights Daily

Digital Marketing & Ecommerce Daily