Why Marketing Matters

Chief marketing officers need to be responsible for or engaged with anything that connects markets to customers in a profitable and sustainable manner.

- Ipsita Dasgupta

The roles of a CFO, Director-HR, or Director-sales are well understood across companies. The same cannot be said for chief marketing officers (CMOs). CMOs are defined differently across industries and companies. For FMCG, consumer durables and most companies selling directly to retail consumers, CMOs have significant empowerment, attract great talent, and often are the path to CEO positions. In these companies, the role aligns brands to customer segments, supports sales, and manages advertising and digital marketing. The CMO role is much more ambiguous in businesses that sell directly to other businesses. In a world that has become more dynamic, weak CMOs are a death sentence for companies. BCG research shows that the average five-year corporate mortality rate of 35,000 US-listed companies is 32 per cent. This is an astounding figure – one-third of the companies that manage to list do not survive in five years. The world today has become more dynamic. The pace of change in customer preferences, competitor actions, and technology standards, has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Given the impact of these external forces on the survival and growth of firms, a strong marketing function is now a strategic necessity.