I read a fascinating global study on what CEOs think of Marketers, by the Fournaise Marketing Group. Some of the interesting findings for me are:
- They keep on talking about brand, brand values, brand equity and other similar parameters that their top management has great difficulties linking back to results that really matter: revenue, sales, EBIT or even market valuation (77%)
- They focus too much on the latest marketing trends such as social media, because they believe they represent the new marketing frontiers – but can rarely demonstrate how these trends will help them generate more business for the company (74%)
- They are always asking for more money, but can rarely explain how much incremental business this money will generate (72%)
- They bombard their stakeholders with marketing data that hardly relate to or mean anything for the company’s P&L (70%)
The average tenure of a CMO is still less than two years. largely because of the issues identified above.