The Core Problems CEOs Want Their Marketing Teams to Solve
In some respects, CEOs are growing more confident in their assessment of their CMOs, according to the third annual CEO Study on Marketing and the CMO [download page], from Boathouse. Some 26% of CEOs surveyed from top US companies gave their CMO a “grade A” for their overall performance, up from 16% who said the same last year.
Concurrently, 40% noted that they believe their CMO to be “best in class,” up from 36% last year and 21% the year prior.
That more enthusiastic assessment extends to the marketing function as a whole. About half (49%) of the CEOs surveyed rated their marketing capability as “best in class,” double the share from last year’s report (24%) and about 2.5 times higher than the year earlier (20%).
Additionally, almost one-third (31%) graded their entire marketing team as being above their expectations for the ability to think and manage all the issues and multiple audiences. That was again more than double the share (13%) who concurred last year.
So if the marketing function is doing better, what exactly is it that it might be improving at?
As it turns out, it’s really about the bottom line. When asked to identify the top 5 problems that they want marketing to solve, CEOs pointed to growth- and revenue-related concerns above all. The top response, cited by 52% as being within their top 5, was for marketing to “create new customers, retain existing customers, drive revenue growth.” Driving revenue growth has long been a leading mandate for marketing teams and one of the key ways in which marketing is measured.
It’s also worth noting that growth/innovation is the top business issue that influences their decision-making, according to CEOs, and is also the issue that is most likely to be increasing in importance for them.
As such, CEOs also want marketing to “drive sales and grow market shares” (45% placing in top 5) and “stay ahead, differentiate, grow faster than our competition” (44%).
Beyond those are more brand-related issues, led by improving the brand/reputation (41%) and transforming the company’s narrative in the marketplace (40%). On that point, separate results from the survey indicate that 71% of CEOs believe that Brand and Reputation are the same thing, while 29% think they’re different.
Returning to the core problems that CEOs want marketing to address, and it’s interesting to see which were not as highly prioritized. Those include increasing the company’s social impact (28% ranking in top 5), driving investor perception/valuation (25%), and innovating the company’s products or services (24%).
With respect to driving investor perception/valuation, recent research has found that brand and marketing strength are actually very important considerations for financial analysts. And it’s also notable that innovation is low on the agenda: another recent study found that while relatively few CMOs believe that leading disruptive innovation is among their primary roles, this area does appear to be on the rise for them.
For more, download the Boathouse study here.
About the Data: The results are based on an October 2023 survey of 150 CEOs from top US companies with at least $250 million in annual revenues. The question about the top problems that CEOs want marketing to solve was answered by half of the sample.
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