CMO Interview Series: Uana Coccoloni

During our journey of building out a grand slam team at HireCMO, we've had the privilege of speaking with some of the brightest minds in the marketing leadership space. One of these gems is none other than, Uana! She's a brilliant marketer with a keen eye for brand development. And given her years of expertise and unique lens in the branding space, we just had to conduct an interview with her!

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Eliza

Uana, it’s so good to have you on. It’s not everyday that I get to talk with someone who’s held executive marketing positions at so many successful organizations. Talk to us about the start of your marketing career and how you became who you are today!

Uana

Thank you. It is great to be here.

And yes, I have been very fortunate in my career. I’ve worked at some really great companies in very interesting industries.

The start of my career really began at Apple. I often say that I had ‘jobs’ before then, but Apple is where my Marketing career began. I learned everything there about brand integrity, the importance of maintaining consistency in everything that you do in order to ensure brand integrity, and I learned about the process of Marketing; taking a strategy from inception to completion. It was an amazing experience.

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Eliza

Q. To add some context for our readers, can you describe the characteristics of the companies that you’ve worked with? 

Uana

Sure. After Apple I really focused on start-up environments. I enjoy the spirit that comes from being at a start-up, but even more so it enabled me to build the brands and Marketing function for a company. I absolutely love that process of building. 

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As a Marketer I also love to ‘solve’ things. Often in a start-up there are many challenges; defining your target audience and their personas, determining the best ways to reach them and to get them to engage, how do we build products or offer services that they want, etc. And then there are the various departments that a Marketing team should serve. Whether it’s Finance or HR, every department within an organization has a Marketing need and the internal team should be able to understand what their goals and objectives are and how to solve it from a Marketing perspective. 

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Eliza

Q. So your core focus as a marketing executive is helping companies build a strong brand. I feel that people have their personal definitions for what “brand” means. As someone with over two decades of experience, how do you define a company’s brand?

Uana

Brand for me is trust. 

The company, through its Marketing efforts, creates a promise of who they are and more importantly, WHY someone should engage with them. And then the company ensures that every time the target audience interacts with them they are delivering on that promise. And the audience trusts in the experience they will receive each time they engage with the company.

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Eliza

Q. I’m curious, at what point in a company’s journey/growth do they need to seriously consider building / refining their brand? And are there tools or frameworks you’d recommend to help them through this process?

Uana

I’d like to distinguish between building the brand, and refining the brand.

Building a brand should strat with immediacy. I think that will be controversial because companies often think they need to wait for brand building and marketing until they have a MVP. I disagree. If you wait until then, the Marketing team is playing catch up. As opposed to start building the brand, which takes time to develop, as soon as possible. Start defining what you stand for and the WHY.

Refining the brand can take place at various times. It could be that your original value props no longer are relevant and you need to redefine who you are. It could be that you are a start up and you wanted to get your name out there quickly and so didn’t go through the necessary steps of clearly defining and developing your brand promise. It could be that you are an older company and really need to re-invigorate your brand in order to be relevant to the changing industry you are in. Or you now have a new mission and vision and you need to ensure that your brand is aligned with that. 

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Eliza

Q. Thanks, that was informative for me. Okay, so let’s say a company has defined their brand. But often, the ones who are “expected” to uphold the brand are the executives. How can a CEO and her team ensure that their brand is maintained and upheld throughout the organization?

Uana

By being diligent in requiring that everyone actually upholds it. Even if it seems minute, it is important that everyone in the organization knows and understands the key value propositions and the messages associated with them so that everyone is speaking to them in the same way.

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Eliza

Q. What about maintaining brand integrity? Are there best practices you’d recommend that can help mid and large-scale teams successfully do this over time?

Uana

Yes. Consistency is key. 

A lot of work gets put into developing a brand. One-and-done does not work. If you are not consistently and frequently getting your brand out there in a very integrated way, then people will forget about you…..and very quickly.

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‍Eliza

Q. I’ve got a surprise question for you, Uana. When I was on your LinkedIn, I noticed you’ve received tons of recommendations from your past companies, clients and colleagues around the quality of your work and personality. How do you consistently deliver high caliber work and make others feel excited working with you? We want to know the secret sauce!

Uana

Thank you. I’m actually most proud of the leader that I’ve developed into. And I’ve learned a lot along the way, from both great leaders that I’ve had the pleasure of working for, and not so great leaders, who I’ve learned how not to treat people. 

First and foremost I believe in empathy as the top skill in being a leader. Having a level of understanding for someone and their perspective is vital. But it’s important to distinguish this from agreement. Just because you understand a perspective, doesn’t mean you agree with it. And having open and respectful dialogue around this is key. 

And in terms of the work, I hire really talented people, people I trust, and people who are smarter than me. And then I let them go and do what they do best and get involved when I think it’s necessary, or when they let me know it’s necessary. And I create a space for open, honest dialogue without judgment. It’s really pretty basic. : )

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Eliza

Q. Given that the “fractional cmo” role is trendy now, I’ve seen people often ask for the perfect chief marketing officer salary. In your experience Uana, what salary ranges are you seeing the full-time or part-time CMO / part-time executive going into 2024?

Uana

I’d love to say that I see salaries rising, but the truth is that the biggest challenge with salaries for a Marketing professional in particular, is that most companies don’t see or recognize the true value of someone with years of experience.  They buy into only needing TikTok videos, or someone to make social posts, or put together a piece of collateral not recognizing that the true value of a CMO is in their ability to build a strategy that meets the organization's goals and objectives.  They aren’t just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks.  They are being thoughtful in how best to reach the target audience with messaging that will resonate.

So in answer to your question, it depends on the years of experience they are truly looking forward to add to the title of CMO. I’ve seen job postings where they ask for 5-7 years of experience.  That is NOT a CMO.

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Eliza

Q. And how would you say that differs compared to a VP of Marketing?

Uana

I think the biggest difference is that a VP of Marketing may not sit on the Executive Leadership Team, which means that they are not contributing to the overall growth of the organization and are solely focused on Marketing.  And at times and depending on the organization, they may also be an individual contributor in addition to managing a team of Marketing professionals.  

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Eliza

Q. For founders of early-stage or growth-stage startups who’re thinking of bringing on a part-time chief marketing officer / fractional CMO – what are the critical chief marketing officer interview questions that you think the interviewer should ask?

Uana

They should be asking what value I bring to the organization, what my process is, and if I clearly understand their business goals and objectives.

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Eliza

Q. Since you’ve held both roles, could you tell us about the key differences in responsibilities between a CMO vs. Vice President of Marketing? 

Uana

As CMO at Curation Health:

• I had a seat on the Executive Leadership Team which meant I also had a helicopter view of the business and could impact our growth strategy.  
• I had a very small team, as can often be the case in a start-up, and so I was also a hands-on leader.  

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As VP of Marketing at andros:

• I was not part of the Leadership Team and so could not impact the direction of the company.
• I had a large team and so was able to dedicate my time to developing marketing strategies, put together plans and then work with the team on execution.

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Eliza

Uana, it was such a pleasure hosting you. I've personally learned so much from talking to you and I have no doubt that the audience learned a lot of new things today. Thank you so much for your time!