Does Your CEO Really Value Your CMO?

According to a recent survey by McKinsey Research, with input from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), CEOs and CMOs must work closely together for ANY marketing plan to flourish.?

Companies that are doing it right are TWO times more likely than their peers to have greater than 5 percent annual growth.

But, unfortunately, 90% of CEOs think they know the benefits of marketing, while only 50% of CMOs agree with them.

So this leaves the other half of CMOs, with a different view on marketing priorities for the organization they work for.?

That's hardly a consensus, is it?

In a McKinsey podcast earlier this year Robert Tas, a McKinsey partner is interviewed about the disconnect between CEOs and CMOs. (There's an audio and transcript.)

"The CEO has less of a marketing pedigree than ever before. It’s estimated that only 10 percent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing experience. There’s also a dramatic acceleration of digital technology in the world of marketing." Robert Tas

Mr. Tas points to a lot of new/different titles as diluting the importance of CMOs. Today, there are new roles such as chief growth officer, chief digital officer, and chief customer officer.

Therefore, the traditional four Ps of marketing have become fragmented across multiple roles, creating a void — the lack of ONE aggregator.

The aggregator (CMO?) is the 'chief customer advocate' across the organization, who ensures the four Ps of 'product, price, place, and promotion' are ALL working together synergistically.

"When we also looked at the official executive job class for CMO, we saw that less than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a CMO or even a customer officer at the C-suite table. That’s a worrying sign." Robert Tas

Robert goes on to say that CMOs should be at the 'strategic planning' table, but often they aren't.

So, how can CMOs effectively execute the vision and mission of the company when they're often not even in the strategy room?

Then there's all the new technology, the platforms, where brands engage with customers... YouTube, TikTok, X, Meta, etc.

In the days of TV, there were only a few channels. But today, we need to be everywhere customers are and collecting the data from all of their interactions.

But, unless all that data turns into 'insights' into customer behavior — it's just data points!

Robert also talks about an econometric model that connects how the money spent on different channels (video, content, and search), working in tandem, will help get the desired results.

Then he adds what we all know... testing!

"And then you have to test, test, test — that is Incremental, meaningful testing and holdouts to see whether your marketing is leading to desired outcomes."

He talks about how many marketers are using a holistic marketing approach (which I strongly believe in), as well as personalization.

Robert says that personalization technology is changing the way we engage customers across the full journey.?

CMOs as 'Growth Unifiers.'

Mr. Tas says their research lays out a blueprint for how to bring CEOs and CMOs closer. And that CEOs need to define the role of the CMO as a growth unifier.

He views the CMO as the chief customer advocate. The CMO's job is to advocate for the customer across the entire company to make sure it's EASY for customers to do business with the company.

"The essential message that I tell all CMOs is they need to take the business strategy, fit it with their customers’ needs, and then put the two together."

In Conclusion...

Whether you're a CEO, a CMO, or play another marketing role... what are your thoughts about the CMO as a 'growth unifier'?

And does your company CEO really understand, and value, your CMO?

I've experienced this level of disconnect in my career, and it's SO counter productive.

I've worked closely with CEOs and CMOs, and sometimes it seems like they're working at cross-purposes, instead of the same goal.

In fact, in at least one firm, it became clear that the CEO really didn't understand marketing, but didn't want to admit it.

That's so silly!

No one knows everything about everything... that's why a CMO would be hired in the first place, right?

Love to get your thoughts, your likes, luvs, and reposts!

And do subscribe, if you haven't already.

Here's to Unifying!

Carolyn

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