Anita Brearton of Cabinet M is one of the pioneers of stack management and rationalization, and we were excited to talk about going from Franken-stack to Fabu-stack in this episode of the Talking Stack.Should every CMO put stack rationalization on their agenda for the year? 21:02 Sure! Wouldn’t you, if you knew you could save up to 20% on Martech spending with an exercise like that?! + What can vendors do to help marketers build more effective and efficient stacks? Anita has a great tip for all Martech vendors We start with talking about why finding and managing the right martech tools still a challenge. Is it because there are too many products? Or is it that companies don’t know exactly what problems they want to solve with technology? How can the stack become a strategic weapon in customer acquisition, retention and revenue generation?How can marketing organizations build internal discipline in the age of SaaS and credit card swipes?There is a need to balance the strategic applications of the stack with tactical, adhoc needs that come up. Anita says, it doesn’t matter if your purchasing is centralized or decentralized – the stack oversight must be centralized, else you will have redundant platforms or unnecessary renewals.We talk about CabinetM’s tips and best practices to help build value-creating stacks and rationalizing existing stacks. Here are the highlights:• Run a stack audit– start with the business objectives and connect the dots to the technology needed at the functional level to meet those goals.• Then identify your anchor technology components- CRM, MA, CDP - and build a single source of truth for the marketing activities that will emanate from these anchor platforms• Build a stack with layers- start by rationalizing by technology category. Then move to outcome areas - customer journeys, relational data through the stack or any other approach • Finally, use a tool like CabinetM’s to drag and drop supplementary tools around these anchor technologies, evaluating the ease of integration of these tools so they can all feed from the single source of truth anchor systems.• Find a way to also track and document technology proficiency within the organization so that the tools can be used optimally by real experts.So, what role does the marketing leadership need to play in ensuring the stack is strategic and that there is purchasing discipline in the team?While marketing ops is centralizing stack oversight, we also see CMOs distancing themselves from the building of a truly strategic stack, and this is the wrong approach. Anita adds, “When tech represents 30% of your budgets and is critical to meeting your revenue, CLV and CX goals, CMOs can’t afford to not be engaged.” What kind of CMO does well with being hands on with tech?Anita says that there is every chance the CMOs of the future will come from a technology background. Unfortunately, she adds, its becoming too easy to just ‘do things’ with technology without really knowing the deeper fundamentals behind the marketing strategy, brand, positioning etc. (ed. Note: This recent post on LinkedIn by Larry Kim about the modern ‘Unicorn Marketer’ reminds us of the sheer length and breadth of all the stuff a marketing leader needs to know today!)HAIL AND FAIL OF THE WEEKWe have a privacy Hail for a change! Manufacturer Axon says it won't use facial recognition software in police body cameras any more. The announcement comes amid a debate over how police should use facial recognition software, and as cities and states consider bans of the technology. We’re just glad its being debated.And then a Friday Fail about the Instagram celeb with 2 million followers – who couldn’t sell 36 T-shirts. What does that tell us about influencer marketing? Anand has some ideas.Liked the show? Hated it? Tell us either way on LinkedIn or Twitter! And grab a sec to hit like or follow on SoundCloud if you want to keep us motivated!!