In an age where the power of the consumer to influence brands and buying decisions grows in leaps and bounds (witness Tropicana’s decision to reverse part of its recent rebranding), the ideas of DDB Worldwide President and CEO Chuck Brymer are worth considering.

He argues that the time has come for companies and agencies to appoint a Chief Community Officer, or CCO, whose role would “oversees the relationship between brands and their communities, not just in the narrow confines of how a consumer interacts with a product at point of purchase but also in how consumers interact with each other.”

Brymer lays out his thinking in a new book, “The Nature of Marketing”. Here’s his vision of the Chief Community Officer:

Introducing the Chief Community Officer: Marketing has Changed, So Must Its Leadership

By Chuck Brymer

The Italian writer, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedosa wrote, “If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”  Nowhere is this truer than in the field of marketing where we have probably seen more change in the past five years than the previous fifty.

The increasing sophistication of consumers, new behavior-altering technologies, channel growth, media fragmentation, and the speed of transactions and innovations, among other factors, have all combined to challenge marketers regardless of company, industry, size, or geography. Every company, every brand, everyone now faces the same situation – how do we engage consumers to become brand loyalists and advocates?

A year ago, I addressed the Association of National Advertisers annual conference and shared my thoughts on how we should be reorganizing to take advantage of the changing face of marketing. One recommendation, which I continue to advocate strongly, is the introduction of a new marketing role: the Chief Community Officer (CCO).

We are moving away from a view of the world defined by what I call “herd marketing” and transitioning from monologue to dialogue and engagement. In this new era, successful brands will be built through brand communities and this broader view of marketing needs to resonate from the top of an agency downward. Someone at a very high level needs to take responsibility for guiding marketing efforts to reach and influence these communities.

This is one area where things need to change. We traditionally frame the marketing process around the endgame of selling products, to the point where some consider “sales and marketing” a unified discipline. Open a marketing textbook from 20 years ago, for example, and you will see a focus on the traditional “four Ps”: product, price, place, and promotion.

We must move from the four Ps to the three Cs, a construct I advocate in my book, The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd. These are conviction, collaboration, and creativity.  In this world a Chief Community Officer ideally oversees the relationship between brands and their communities, not just in the narrow confines of how a consumer interacts with a product at point of purchase but also in how consumers interact with each other.  These consumer-to-consumer interactions take place on the web and on the street and serve as a powerful influence in shaping our views and preferences.

The Chief Community Officer responsibility has relevance and value in any company that desires to effectively influence these consumer interactions and relationships. I see four key roles for this person. The first involves re-calibrating the way we think about brand building.

•    Instead of developing products and services by ‘listening’ to the market, a CCO makes sure consumers have a real voice in the process.
•    Instead of just creating brand advertising, a chief community officer works to build a community around your brand, using multiple channels
•    Instead of focusing on pre-sale activities and seeing areas like service and support as tacitly “someone else’s job,” a CCO takes great interest in what consumers are telling the company and each other
•    Instead of just disseminating a brand message, a CCO makes sure your organization is living their message
•    Instead of advocating for the consumer, the CCO views the entire community as the new consumer

The second role is to understand and manage points of leverage. A CCO should be someone who understands all patterns of influence online and offline, in much the same way a media planner understands patterns of media consumption. This means knowing the touch points of your brand community, studying their wants, needs, and lifestyles, and using these insights to inform your marketing efforts.

For instance, a traditional Chief Marketing Officer often looks for influencers to create ‘buzz’ among the media, the power users, the bloggers, and the industry experts. ‘Buzz’ is great but it is only one part of the equation.  To truly leverage influence, buzz must be joined by conviction and credibility.

And today, influence is everywhere. A CCO should ideally be a student of how these patterns of influence emerge and dissipate. What happens when a hot new product erupts online, or a public relations fiasco draws thousands of comments to the blogosphere? And how should you respond to these stimuli?

Clorox, for instance, has been very proactive in educating and listening directly to their consumers. In their own blog, DR. LAUNDY’s Weblog, a real scientist, who has worked for Clorox for over 30 years, answers questions from consumers and keeps people up-to-date on the latest innovations.  This is a great example of leveraging the community. It keeps Clorox highly visible in the search engine results and positions them as both expert and player in the category.

The third role is to monitor and respond to the community. For fun, try doing what your consumers do: go online and search for your product or service by name to see how people rate it and what they are saying on discussion boards.

Then go visit some of the online discussion forums devoted to consumer problems, like Consumerist.com. Now, try and see how companies respond to complaints. Once in a while, some of them will actually post a reply explaining their side of the story or apologize and make things right. More often than not, you will see no response at all. In my view, a chief community officer should be aware of what the swarm is saying and responsible for developing strategy to engage it appropriately.

The last role of the CCO is to serve as a community agent. Moving from delivering brand messages to engaging brand communities. Traditional marketers advocate being the “voice of the customer.” What I am proposing is that a CCO must learn where these consumers live and move there, at least figuratively.

The CCO is responsible for developing strategies that build brand influence and open opportunities for brands to engage more deeply  within social networks.  These networks have enormous influence over purchase intent and should be considered a key ingredient in the ability to generate sustainable relationships with customers.