Christa Carone
The reimaging of
Xerox’s brand
CV
n Corporate VP,
CMO
Xerox Corporation
2010–present
n VP of marketing
and communica-
tions
Xerox Corporation
2008-2010
n VP of global
communications
Xerox Corporation
2007-2008
n VP of corporate
PR and communi-
cations
Xerox Corporation
2004-2007
n Director of
corporate PR
Xerox Corporation
2001-2004
n Manager of
corporate media
relations
Xerox Corporation
1998–2000
By Nicole Spector Xerox has long been recognized for its office prod- ucts and technologies. But its business has evolved significantly to include myriad business services, as well—everything from document management to IT and business process outsourcing. As its CMO, Christa Carone’s main challenge is getting the public to recognize Xerox’s vast role as a services provider in the B2B space. “Print is a rich and proud heritage for Xerox,” Carone says. “But more than half our revenue comes from our service business—one that is growing 6 to 8% a year.” Carone cites this as “an interesting brand challenge” and a “definite opportunity to shift consumers’ perception of the Xerox brand from the technology and copy company into ne known for its business services.” Xerox’s development as a B2B company began when the company acquired Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), an information technology services and business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions firm in 2009. The $6.4 billion acquisition married Xerox technology to ACS’s behind-the-scenes transactional processing servic- es—a component of businesses that Carone says is “abso- lutely necessary, [yet] doesn’t get a lot of attention because it’s a back-office operation.” Xerox is now in places that “probably surprise people,” Carone says. “When you call Virgin America to speak with one of its customer care agents, the person you speak with is probably a Xerox employee.” Carone adds that it may be a Xerox employee processing your paper and digital health insurance claims and recent credit card applications, and it’s likely a Xerox employee who walked you through your last smartphone trouble- shooting session. Carone joined Xerox 13 years ago as a communica- tions professional with a background in public relations. Over the ensuing decade, Carone’s communications roles expanded within Xerox to include media relations, then PR, and eventually marketing. September will mark her fourth year as Xerox’s CMO, a position she describes as thrilling, given the opportunity it provides her to integrate communications—a field she has an admitted bias to as “it’s where [she] grew up”—with mar- keting practices. “My priority is to have traditional com- munication professionals become more effective marketers and vice versa. It’s about blurring the lines; two disciplines becoming one,” she says.
Photo by: Jane Shauck
