Channel or brand? What is the primary role of the CMO in your organization?

In leadership teams and marketing circles there has long been discussion on the short tenure of CMOs and the reasons behind this. Spencer Stuart recently published the results of their CMO Tenure Study, citing the average CMO tenure in 2020 dropped to 40 months, the lowest it has been since 2009.

Respect for marketing and the tenure of CMOs will continue to decline unless CMOs re-form and transform marketing’s role from a communication channel role to a brand-business leadership role.

Instead of a profession, marketing has become a trade: the trade of managing and executing marketing and media tactics. Marketing has fallen in love with the increasing number of communication channel opportunities, social media, entertainment, events, online and so on.

A 2021 Deloitte CMO survey indicates that digital marketing is the CMOs primary responsibility. Digital is a communication channel. Communication channel management is not marketing management.

Marketing leaders must bring a distinctive brand-business perspective to C-suite table by being responsible for:

• Helping to define the quality revenue growth strategy: attracting and maintaining customers who frequent the brand becoming brand loyal to generate enduring profitable growth
• Achieving organizational alignment behind a common brand-business purpose and direction
• Helping to define the Brand-Business priorities such as
  - Being the voice and advocate of the customer
  - Knowing more about the customer than anyone else in the organization
  - Leading the drive for customer-insight growth strategies and innovation
  - Leading the effort to break down organizational silos
• Developing and implementing a Balanced Brand-Business Scorecard
• Leading customer-driven innovation, through providing insights into customer needs and problems, defining the focus for the development of innovative insight-driven products and services
• Contributing to the development and implementation of a Brand-Business Plan
• Developing the price-value strategy
• Responsibility for brand communications, internal and external

The most critical capability of the CMO is to have a profound, deep understanding of customers and their needs and know how to engage with and serve them.

Beyond this the CMO is responsible for the entire set of stages of the marketing planning process: analyzing forces of change (the 5Cs: Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, Context and Company), determining the ambition (targeting, positioning and goals), marketing decisions (illustrated by the 4Ps model) and results.

Each of these stages requires someone, besides the CEO, to take the ultimate responsibility for its design and execution.

The future of marketing will depend on leaders who understand marketing’s role as driving a brand-based, customer-focused business that attracts and retains customers resulting in sustainable, profitable growth. Marketing is more than a multi-channeled, multi-device communications role; it is a business management role.