5 Crucial Questions CEOs Ask About Marketing
- -1- How Important is Marketing?
- -2- What is My Most Important Marketing Priority?
- -3- Where are Marketing Resources Best Utilized?
- -4- What is the Impact of the Marketing Organization?
- -5- How Does Marketing Effort Tie in Directly with the Bottom Line?
- ➤ Marketing's Agenda & the CEOs Statistical Background
- ➤ Marketing Value the Solution to Questions CEOs Ask
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The fine art of Marketing Management is quite misunderstood, most especially by the C-suite – CEOs. We therefore set out to find answers, to the Questions CEOs Ask About Marketing. In most organizations Marketing is like the Middle-Child. Present yet ignored. Forgotten then remembered. So, we set out on a quest to find solutions. After some digging we found hidden treasure. Important marketing questions that linger in a CEO’s mind giving them sleepless nights.
-1- How Important is Marketing?
A LinkedIn study of 12,000 CEO profiles, published in 2018 showed that Computer Science was the most popular field of study for CEOs, followed closely by Economics, Business, Banking & Finance in that order. Marketing ranked 7th place. This information, is insightful and explains why most CEO’s ask questions about marketing based on their field of study. Let’s begin with the fact that Marketing is mostly an art while computer science is definitely a science. What that tells you is that the average marketer must speak science by ‘quantifying’ marketing in order to effectively communicate to the CEO!
-2- What is My Most Important Marketing Priority?
On the flip-side according to Spencer Stuart, in India, only 25% of CEOs come from a marketing background. The reason why marketers make such successful CEOs according to Rohit is their ability to bring a ‘clear understanding of their customer’, as well as the ability to use the left and right hemispheres of the brain. He continued, marketers can think analytically and creatively at the same time. As a CEO that’s a very valuable skill. Which then begs the question, why do so few CEOs consider marketing central to their winning formula? And, how do we elevate marketing so that it’s a major consideration in every CEO’s plan? Many CEOs want marketers to think big and take risks that pay-off something CMOs Chief Marketing Officers don’t always realize. But, then again “under pressure, the marketing budget gets the first cut, because it is the hardest to justify”. The reason marketing proposals are declined or not fully funded is because they don’t demonstrate a clear line of value. In a nut-shell if you’re a CMO your best bet is to learn how to quantify and tie budgetary outcomes to overall business priorities.
-3- Where are Marketing Resources Best Utilized?
According to a report by Marketing Week, many CEOs have marketing departments “purely out of tradition” and have “made the conscious decision not to expect more from marketing than branding, look/feel-good ads and promotions”. CEOs feel marketers “live too much in the brand, creative and social media bubble”. They would like marketers to be more ROI-focused and able to account for every pound spent and measure its positive impact on P&L. So, as a CMO you need to walk the tight rope and balance between purely marketing metrics and focusing on data analysis, measurement and reporting. To prove and demonstrate the value of the marketing function’s resources to the business. And, to gain the respect and support of C-suite leadership. Budget alignment to overall commercial objectives is a must. And, every single marketing role in the team must be clearly defined. So that each marketer understands the contribution of their role to the bottom-line. The CMO can then attribute the overall marketing function budget to commercial outcomes!
-4- What is the Impact of the Marketing Organization?
According to Mckinsey the marketing’s moment is now “marketing with a capital M.” In a new McKinsey study, 83% of global CEOs say that marketing can be a major driver of growth. For a function that has all too often been thought of as the “brand” or “advertising” arm of the business, this is a notable development. But the news isn’t all rosy. Some 23 percent of CEOs do not feel that marketing is delivering on that agenda. So how does the CMO rid themselves of the shackles of being dubbed the “brand” or “advertising” arm of the business, to become a strategic function. They can start by making sure the CEO understands how exactly marketing is driving growth, owning the customer, and serving the company’s broader goals and objectives. How? By balancing traditional marketing metrics with more tangible business measures of success! That way the CMO knows that the CEO is firmly in their corner, and they can use that support to further marketing’s growth agenda.
-5- How Does Marketing Effort Tie in Directly with the Bottom Line?
According to Marketing Week, 70% of CEOs have lost trust in marketers. The majority (70 percent) of CEOs have lost trust in marketers’ ability to deliver growth after becoming frustrated by what they see as an inability to prove ROI on campaigns. More than a third (69%) of CEOs say they have stopped enforcing key business objectives and indicators on marketers because they have “continuously failed” to prove marketing strategies and campaigns delivered business growth. Again, the solution is simple. Ditch marketing action plans which focus outward and diminish the role of marketing. And, pull a chair at the main table and begin by understanding the organizations commercial plans. Bolstered with that knowledge, marketing can develop strategy that draws inspiration directly from commercial plans. Then marketing can deliver towards the bottom-line, while driving customer value.
➤ Marketing’s Agenda & the CEOs Statistical Background
After spending time digging into statistics on the subject, we found that:
- Most CEOs are computer science majors
- Approximately 25% of CEOs are marketers
- CEOs want marketers to think big and take risks that pay off
- Marketing budgets are the hardest to justify and get the first cut
- Many CEOs have a marketing function purely out of tradition
- CEOs would like marketers to focus on ROI and P&L impact
- 70% of CEOs have lost their trust in marketers
However, on the ‘flip side’ we also found that:
- Some 83% of CEOs feel that the marketing moment is now
- A majority of CEOs also believe marketing can be a major driver of growth
- CEOs are willing to support the CMOs marketing growth agenda
➤ Marketing Value the Solution to Questions CEOs Ask
With the above in mind, a good place to start is by making sure, that CEOs understand how marketing management drives their growth agenda! To answer the CEOs questions, the CMO must be able to clearly demonstrate the value of marketing by quantifying marketing efforts and tying them directly to the bottom line. CMOs Chief Marketing Officers need to balance traditional marketing metrics with tangible business measures of success. While ensuring that every single marketing role in their team is clearly defined so that each marketer understands how their role contributes to the bottom-line.
Additionally, CMOs must understand the overall business strategy of the organization to develop the marketing strategy. To deliver the desired results, marketing must draw inspiration directly from the commercial plans. By owning the customer and serving the company’s broader goals and objectives, CMOs can demonstrate marketing value. And, elevate marketing to a major consideration in every CEO’s plan. While ultimately answering the CEOs questions about marketing management positively and conclusively!
The result is what every CEO’s dreams are made of, they can support and justify marketing effort as well as budgets to the board and shareholders and directly attribute the same to the bottom-line! Not-taking the above measures seriously will ultimately lead to a slow decline and an early demise of marketing and eventually most organizations will end up on ‘life support‘!
