January is the month of renewed goals and better-you resolutions. Machines and classes at the gym are packed, diet and weight loss books are flying off shelves (or onto tablets), and money-saving commitments are redoubled. These are some of the more common New Year’s resolutions and, not surprisingly, are also some of those most commonly broken. The right thing to do is neither easy nor sustainable. To borrow from the poem that inspired Steinbeck, “the best laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry . . .”

Many enterprises run into this conundrum when it comes to customer experience. They talk a big game about their resolve to master the discipline of customer experience but then let existing organizational structures, budget priorities, and operational processes provide excuses that limit progress.

Today, I published a new report, “The Convergence Of Brand, Customer Experience, and Marketing,” in which I lay out the new paradigm for the connection between these three disciplines. I also offer three roles for the CMO to play in aligning brand, CX, and marketing — a strategic imperative that CMOs must take on or risk irrelevance in a world driven by the customer’s needs and wants.

To read the report, Forrester subscribers can click here. And I’ll be hosting a webinar on this new research on Wednesday, January 15th (tomorrow), at 1 p.m. ET. You can register to join me by clicking here.

This is an area I will be continuing to focus on with my CX peers over the course of the year, which is an obligation and not just a resolution, so look for more. If you’d like to talk about the findings or participate, just drop me an email or a send me a tweet.

Happy New Year, and good luck with your resolutions!