It’s a totem of marketing that the short tenure of the chief marketing officer is to blame for all manner of ills. The stark reason for this short tenure: CMOs’ bosses don’t trust them.
That’s laid clear in a new survey by marketing consultancy Fournaise, which polled 1,200 chiefs of large and small companies. Campaign Asia reported the findings, which are a bit of a wake-up call to marketers chasing after The Next Big Thing.
For B2C CEOs, more customer-demand means more sales revenue. Unfortunately, nearly seven in 10 of B2C CEOs believe their marketers now live too much in a creative and social-media bubble and focus too much on parameters such as likes, tweets, feeds or followers — parameters they can’t prove generate more business-quantifiable customer demand for products and services. CEOs regard these parameters as “interesting but not critical.”
The study, of course, hinges on the ROI issue. The fact remains that social hasn’t yet proven itself to be a big business drive. There’s a sneaking suspicion in many areas of companies that marketing overall is a lot of fluffery. Fournaise, for instance, found that CEOs are far more likely to trust the opinions of tech and finance over the same coming from marketing. Even when marketers speak of “results,” CEOs aren’t exactly buying that marketers really get what constitutes real business-driving data, the report concludes. Three out of four respondents want marketers to be completely ROI focused.
These CEOs feel marketers are too distracted, get sucked into the the “technological flurry and jargon” related to system integration and forget that technology is meant to be used only as a support tool. These tools don’t create demand per se; only accurate strategies and campaigns pushing the right products, product benefits, content and customer value propositions do.
Marketing is clearly moving into the world of big data. The successful marketers will see data not so much as a crutch to justify campaigns, but as a driver and determiner of marketing plans. That’s probably the only way marketing is going to get out of the trap of being seen as the lesser function within companies.
More in Marketing
Some creators say brands are delaying their holiday deals later than ever this year
After front-loading budgets in the first half of the year, brands strike last-minute deals with creators ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Agency new business crunch now permanent, say execs
Agencies report unreasonable deadlines and time commitments from clients are becoming more common, while new research reveals marketer and agency despair at pitch process.
How one Midwestern department stores sees itself as a ‘hidden gem’ for ‘Instagram brands’
Iowa-based Von Maur considers itself an underdog among department stores. But the retailer says it has unique qualities that are attracting hip brands like Dagne Dover, Ana Luisa and Lulus.