Marketing Under the C-Suite Microscope
Donovan Neale-May
Executive Director of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, Growth Officer (GO) Council, and Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network
Asking business leaders to rate the effectiveness of their marketing organizations is a bit like removing foxtails from your socks after a long hike or extracting them from the paws of your favorite canine after outdoor play. You have to dig around to find them and then exercise great care in taking them out.??
Well, we just completed that exercise with 120 executive business leaders who are active in the C-Suite Network, the Harvard Business School Association, and the Business Performance Innovation Network. To be honest, we were pleasantly surprised with the results.?
Our C-suite marketing scorecard report happens to coincide with the release of end-of-school year grades and the celebratory Father’s Day. The fabled, annual “Dads + Grads“ promotional sales period in North America is often the time marketing is making a compelling case for H2 expenditures to continue driving business growth. So, how well did marketing do in this year’s assessment of business leader satisfaction??
Among the findings of our research was the disparity in management views of the marketing function in large companies with more than $500M in revenue versus those with less than $500M. Most notably, there is a higher level of confidence in marketing’s ability to lead growth and recovery in smaller enterprises and greater degree of interaction between marketing and business teams.
In larger enterprises the CMO is overwhelmingly seen as the “customer experience advocate and champion” in contrast to “brand reputation custodian and value creator” in smaller enterprises.
Management in larger companies sees the modernization and automation of the global marketing function as a big requirement to address as opposed to attracting more technically savvy, digital talent and making better data-driven decisions in smaller companies
This year’s study was sponsored by our good friends at Chief Outsiders. They do a great job of provisioning interim marketing leaders. Given the turnover of chief marketing officers reported breathlessly by executive recruiters (who fill these holes), the demand for a “try before you buy” or interim leader to bolster the marketing bench appears to be gaining momentum.?
Despite the “limited” shelf life of CMOs, the C-Suite Scorecard revealed that marketing is in relatively good standing with management and functional peers. We compiled a report grading the performance of marketing teams and identifying where marketing organizations can do a better job to improve capability and fill holes.?
C-SUITE 2021 MARKETING REPORT CARD
Based on Survey of 120 Senior Executives in Companies of All Sizes
SCORECARD RESULTS:
领英推荐
Top Organizational Development Needs
Areas for Operational Improvement
Essential Measures of Marketing Effectiveness
Benefits of Using Outside Experts and Contractors
Events Most Likely to Trigger Use of Interim Leaders
The findings?were based on a 2021 survey fielded by the CMO Council in partnership with the C-Suite Network, Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network, and a Harvard Business School alumni association. Underwriting for the project came from Chief Outsiders, a leading fractional CMO service provider.
Survey participants (120) included a mix of senior management executives across companies of all sizes, industry sectors and diverse leadership roles. Nearly 40 percent of respondents were in companies of more than $1 billion in annual revenue and an additional 21 percent were drawn from mid-sized companies with revenues of $100 million to $1 billion. The balance of survey takers (39 percent) came from companies with less than $100 million in annual sales.
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer
3 年Informative insights in this CMO Council report on marketing effectiveness, the impression of marketing in small organizations versus large organizations and top perceived marketing needs. #ceoinsights @artsaxby #cmocouncil #marketing #CMO #CEO #chiefoutsiders
Partner and Chief Revenue Officer | We help mid-market companies accelerate growth.
3 年Art Saxby - I found the disparity by company size so interesting - and it made me reflect on my own experiences. I certainly have seen that CMOs are involved in all aspects of growth and value creation at smaller companies (versus being more of a customer experience function in larger ones).
Senior Business and Marketing Exec Seeking Board, Advisory and Coaching Opportunities.
3 年Excellent report CMO Council! So interesting to read the different perspective of the marketing role in large vs medium and smaller companies.
Chief Marketing Officer. Accelerates growth with game-changing, omni-channel, direct-to-consumer marketing strategies and flawless execution.
3 年Loaded with him valuable insights!?
E-Commerce and Omnichannel Executive
3 年One very interesting finding was the CMO role that executive teams found most essential was that of "customer experience advocate and champion". Marketing has come a long way since the days of Bill Hicks...