Proliferation will affect virtually every company in every industry; the question is not "if" but "when." In interviews with nearly 50 Chief Marketing Officers from Fortune 500 companies (including automotive, basic materials, credit cards, financial services, high tech, industrial, media, packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, retail, telecom, and transportation), proliferation arose as the most pressing issue.

Follow-up discussions with nearly 100 more marketing executives have shown that the challenge of proliferation permeates all major marketing activities, straining companies’ abilities to identify and capture growth opportunities, maintain scale and efficiency in marketing execution, and create agile organizations that can adapt to rapidly evolving environments.

Navigating this complexity is particularly important now, as CEOs increasingly look to CMOs to drive organic growth and justify marketing costs.

While each company must chart its own course to profit from proliferation, marketing leaders should consider five approaches:

	Develop a more disciplined approach to managing brand portfolios
	Build an "insights network" to identify and capture growth opportunities at the intersections of brand, segment and channel
	Improve the impact and efficiency of sales and service by creating a "lean backbone" that meets the needs of all customers and adding standard "high-touch overlays" to serve more important customers
	Standardize execution of critical marketing functions, such as pricing, customer management, and spend effectiveness, with globally coordinated processes, supporting tools and metrics
	Transform commercial capabilities – including core marketing and sales processes, roles, and capabilities – to create more flexible organizations

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