Marketers lose presence in the boardroom and the trust of CEO’s
In the past week two pieces of research show that CEOs have lost trust in marketers and CMOs are also under-represented in the boardroom.
The first report, by Fournaise Marketing Group, reveals that 70 per cent of CEOs have lost trust in marketers being able to prove return on investment and more than a third have stopped enforcing business objectives on marketers because of this inability to show that marketing strategies and campaigns have delivered business growth.
This links to the second and separate report which shows that ISBA has identified CMOs lack of presence in the boardroom and will aim to improve the perception of marketing as a business driver.
Our cover story this week ties these two reports together and looks at marketers’ confidence over the next 12 months compared to the past year, using data based on the inaugural confidence monitor developed by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
The key point to come from the confidence monitor is that marketers are expecting budget cuts with increased business targets, essentially meaning they will have to do more with less. Aside from this, key marketers commenting in the cover story encourage CMOs to have a better relationship with other departments in the business.
The idea being that increased communication with key people in the business, in particular the finance department, will help marketers show that they are vital in delivering business growth and will also pre-empt budget cuts and help marketers understand what they have to work with and how best to use that budget.
After these two reports this week, marketers need to be able to prove ROI in their campaigns and also increase their presence and role in the overall business and perhaps better communication between departments has a big role to play in achieving both of these points.
