Role of a CMO in Today's Business

A quick clarification on the CMO role (especially for first-time founders and growing companies). A Chief Marketing Officer is an executive leadership role, not a delivery function. At the CMO level, the mandate is to own: • Go-to-market strategy • Positioning and market narrative • Demand architecture and pipeline quality • Revenue alignment with Sales and Finance • Budget allocation and priority sequencing • Cross-functional alignment across Product, Sales, and Finance For this reason, a CMO reports to the CEO. Not as a matter of hierarchy — but because marketing decisions directly affect revenue quality, capital efficiency, and long-term valuation. What the CMO role is not designed for: • Campaign execution • Content production • Tactical channel management Those functions require dedicated operators, and the CMO requires hiring/performance authority and budget ownership over them to be effective. When marketing leadership is placed under operations or staff functions, it often becomes activity-driven rather than outcome-driven. Over time, this shows up as inconsistent demand, misaligned incentives, and slower compounding. This isn’t about titles. It’s about governance. Growth scales best when marketing has clear executive ownership and accountability.

What Does a CMO Really Do? It’s a role everyone recognizes, but few truly understand its depth and complexity. Here’s my take: A Chief Marketing Officer is the visionary architect. They don’t just oversee campaigns or manage teams—they craft the overarching narrative that connects the brand to its audience, while aligning it with business objectives. The strategist: They define the roadmap for the brand, ensuring every marketing effort ladders up to a unified vision. The integrator: They bring together diverse functions—brand, sales, digital, insights, PR—into one cohesive machine. The storyteller: They ensure the brand’s voice is heard, seen, and felt across every touchpoint, from boardrooms to social feeds. The business driver: They tie marketing efforts to revenue, growth, and long-term business sustainability. 👉 When a product launch is planned, the CMO asks, “How does this align with our brand’s mission and vision?” 👉 When teams propose ideas, they challenge, “How does this impact the customer and drive business growth?” 👉 When the market shifts, they recalibrate, asking, “How do we adapt while staying true to who we are?” A great CMO isn’t just a leader—they’re the brand’s custodian, the consumer’s champion, and the organization’s bridge to the outside world. To all aspiring CMOs: remember, you’re not just leading a marketing team. You’re steering the ship of brand purpose, customer connection, and business success. What’s your perspective on the role of a Chief Marketing Officer? Let’s keep the discussion alive!

The CMO role is being rewritten. When I started my career twenty-some-odd years ago, a marketing leader's success was largely measured by brand awareness, PR coverage, events, campaigns and lead generation. I remember spending countless hours planning trade shows, managing agencies, building campaigns, and reporting on marketing metrics that, at the time, felt like the ultimate measure of success. Those things still matter. But somewhere along the way, the job changed. Today, marketing leaders are expected to understand far more than marketing. We're expected to understand revenue, product strategy, customer experience, data and analytics, sales processes, growth economics, and now, AI. Looking back at the different companies and industries I've worked in over the years, one thing has become increasingly clear: the best marketing leaders aren't just marketers. They're business leaders. They understand how the company makes money. They know what customers care about. They can connect positioning to pipeline, customer experience to retention, and marketing investments to measurable business outcomes. Some of my most important conversations today have nothing to do with campaigns. They're about revenue targets, product-market fit, customer feedback, sales alignment, operational efficiency, and where the business should invest next. That's a very different job than the one I started with. And honestly, I think it's made marketing more interesting than ever. I've watched marketing evolve from a function that supported the business to one that helps shape the business. When marketing has a seat at the strategy table, it can influence far more than awareness. It can help drive growth, shape products, improve customer experiences, and create real business impact. Looking back on the last two decades, the biggest change isn't the channels, the technology, or even AI. It's that marketing leaders are increasingly expected to think like business leaders. The role is bigger. The expectations are higher. And for those who embrace it, the opportunity to make an impact has never been greater. I'm curious: 👉 What's the biggest change you've seen in the marketing leadership role over the years? 👉 If you were hiring a CMO today, what would be at the top of your list? #CMO #MarketingLeadership #MarketingStrategy #BusinessLeadership #Growth #B2BMarketing #RevenueMarketing #AI #ProductMarketing #Leadership

Your board has a CFO, a COO, probably a few investors. But no CMO. Are you wondering why growth has stalled? Marketing isn't just a department. It's the connective tissue between product, customer experience, and revenue. The best businesses I work with treat marketing as a strategic function, not a service department. Their CMOs don't just report metrics. They shape strategy. Here's what changes when marketing sits at the board table: Customer reality enters the room Your CMO talks to customers every day. They know why people really churn. What competitors are actually doing. How behaviour is shifting. Without them, you're making strategic decisions based on spreadsheets, not market reality. Someone challenges product roadmap Engineers build what's possible. Product builds what they think users want. Marketing knows what the market actually values. They're paid to look eighteen months ahead and say "we're building the wrong thing." Revenue conversations get honest Is it really an acquisition problem? Or is it retention? Is the issue awareness, consideration, or conversion? Your CMO knows the difference. That distinction changes everything about where you invest. Brand becomes measurable Stop treating brand like a luxury. Your CMO can show you exactly how brand perception drives price premium, reduces acquisition costs, and increases lifetime value. But only if they're in the room to make that case. Crisis response actually works When something goes wrong, your first instinct is legal and PR. But your CMO understands narrative, perception, and how customers actually think. The difference between a managed issue and a reputation crisis often comes down to those first 48 hours. Growth strategies get tested before they're funded Your board approves a new market entry. Six months later it fails. Your CMO could have told you the positioning wouldn't translate, the competition was entrenched, or the customer journey was completely different. But nobody asked. The long game gets a voice Everyone else is managing quarters. Your CMO is building sustainable competitive advantage. Brand equity, community, thought leadership - the things that compound over time but look like costs in month one. Digital transformation gets translated Your board nods along to AI strategies and digital initiatives. Your CMO actually knows what customers will adopt, what's hype, and what will move the needle. They bridge the gap between tech possibility and market reality. Your competition probably still thinks marketing is about driving a quick buck. Let them.

The next generation of CMOs will not come from one specialty. They will come from marketers who understand product, customer, and experience as one integrated system. Why? Because buyers are becoming harder to influence. They trust peers over brands. They demand value quickly. They expect clear positioning, frictionless onboarding, and consistent experiences. And they switch vendors with zero hesitation. A CMO who only understands brand cannot win in this environment. A CMO who only understands product cannot win either. The leaders who will rise are the ones who can answer the most important question in modern marketing: What does the customer need at every stage, and how does our product deliver that value consistently? That requires cross-training. Product marketing for positioning, messaging, launches, segmentation, and competitive insight. Customer marketing for loyalty, advocacy, community, proof, and behavioral patterns. Customer experience for friction removal, journey mapping, and value realization. The companies that are already elevating leaders with hybrid PMM, CX, and customer marketing skill sets are outperforming peers because their decisions come from truth, not assumptions. The CMOs of the future will be customer-obsessed strategists with product understanding and cross-functional influence. The ones who can see the full organism. #CMO #MarketingLeadership #CustomerExperience #ProductMarketing #CustomerMarketing #FutureOfWork

I’ve been in the room when FMCG boards reviewed the final shortlist for a CMO role. Over the last 12 months, something remarkable has happened in those rooms: the most debated profiles aren’t traditional brand marketers from legacy CPG houses, they’re growth leaders from tech. Leaders from Spotify, Uber, TikTok, Amazon, Klarna. They’re not coming in with 20 years of experience managing heritage brands across grocery channels. But they’re fluent in another language altogether: data-led storytelling, performance-driven growth loops, real-time consumer signals, and omni-channel acquisition that doesn’t require above-the-line muscle. And suddenly, for global consumer companies that have struggled to keep up with how consumers discover and engage with brands, this “outsider” language is exactly what they’re craving. -76% of consumers now expect brands to anticipate their needs and behaviors, not just respond to them. (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 2023) - Personalization and real-time relevance aren’t just “digital priorities”, they’re growth levers. -And for Gen Z consumers, brand loyalty is no longer built in-store or through TV spots. It’s earned through value-driven storytelling, digital community engagement, and consistent online presence across formats. The traditional FMCG CMO was a master of category management, retail activation, and brand architecture. That role still matters. But the emerging CMO, the one most in demand today looks a little different: → They think in funnels, not channels. → They test, learn, and optimize daily. → They’re equally comfortable briefing creators for TikTok as they are building full-funnel attribution models. → They manage marketing like a product team: agile, cross-functional, data-literate. I’ve seen this play out firsthand in executive search mandates. The world of consumer goods has changed and the skill sets needed at the top are evolving too.It’s no longer just about knowing the category. So, if you’re leading a consumer brand and hiring for its future, here’s my question: Are you searching for someone who knows your brand’s history? Or someone who can build its future? Let’s talk. #FMCG #MarketingLeadership #ExecutiveSearch #DigitalTransformation #ConsumerGoods #CMO #Hiring #FutureOfMarketing

Today’s CMOs are doing more than managing a brand; they’re steering business strategy and unlocking growth. Their impact is undeniable. As the scope and influence of marketing leadership expand, so too does the dynamic between CMO and CEO. And beyond that, they've become something even more powerful: Culture drivers. This is what CMOs are today. And it's radically different from what CMOs were even 20 years ago. Recently, Klaviyo's CMO Jamie Domenici called herself the “Chief Market Officer,” and I thought this perfectly captured the moment we’re in. Drop the "-ing" and you represent and reflect the market you serve. The pre-social media marketing playbook taught CMOs to manage brands, control messaging, and dictate trends. Today's reality? Najoh Tita-Reid, Chief Brand and Experience Officer at Mars Petcare, shared with me, “I have absolutely no control. I am very aware of that." Instead, modern marketing leaders inspire teams, create guardrails for co-creation, and recognize that communities are infinitely more intelligent than any single voice. But this shift requires humility. And that’s not something that’s easily taught. Today’s consumers aren’t passive audiences, they’re active participants in shaping the brand. Through what they post, share, praise, and criticize, they have the power to influence marketing strategies, social media narratives, experiential touchpoints, and even the products themselves. The modern CMO's job is to listen and employ technology to amplify consumer voices. This means deep social listening. With enough attention to what consumers are saying and doing, you can predict their next moves weeks before they happen. Take Mars Pet Care, for example. They learned that while about two-thirds of people claim to hate cats, three-quarters of those have never owned one. So they tried something bold: Convert the “cat haters” into cat adopters, with the help of algorithms. By retraining algorithms to find cat-haters and continue offering them fostering opportunities for cats in need, they increased cat adoption by 200%. And proved a lot of cat haters wrong. The shift I’m seeing is that today's #CMOs don’t launch finite campaigns set in stone. They’re more malleable, recognizing that their combined community is infinitely more intelligent and powerful than any single post. I’m excited about the new generation of culture-driving CMOs because the technology exists to work with consumers in ways we’ve never seen before. What are some of the most innovative #marketing campaigns you’ve seen lately? Share them in the comments!

“I don’t care that much about your companies,” revealed the Penguin-in-Chief while wrapping up 3 Strategy Labs with 36 CMOs last week. “My concern is the transformation story you will be able to tell in one year,” I explained. Of course, I want their companies to grow. But, ironically, growth alone won’t secure a CMO's seat or their next opportunity. Only transformation does. If you can lead an organization from here to there, it almost doesn’t matter what happens next. New CEO, new PE firm, new direction. You’re on solid footing because you didn’t just run marketing. You changed the business. This is that moment. Perhaps for the first time, B2B CMOs have the opportunity to do what B2C CMOs have been doing all along: drive the strategic direction of their companies, not just support it. And yet, most of the pressure you’re feeling doesn’t sound like an opportunity. It sounds like this: cut 30% and deliver 30% more. Those numbers may be arbitrary. The moment is not. You can respond by making marketing smaller. Or you can use this moment to make marketing matter more. That starts with positioning. The CMOs who win now will be the ones who help their companies own a hill. One thing. Clearly defined. Deeply understood. Aligned across the organization. When that happens, you see it everywhere. Win rates improve. Deal cycles shorten. Average deal sizes grow. Positioning isn’t a messaging exercise. It’s business transformation. Then there’s AI. Not AI for efficiency’s sake. AI in the service of something bigger. In Seattle, a group of CMOs began discussing a new benchmark: $1M in revenue per employee. Not $250K. Four times the output. That’s not optimization. That’s a different way of operating. We also heard from a startup CMO who’s already working this way. No traditional stack. No rigid systems. Just flexible, AI-driven workflows stitched together in real time. Early, imperfect, but directionally clear. This is where it’s going. So the question isn’t whether you’ll use AI. It’s how you’ll prioritize it. AI in service of what? Better customer understanding. More relevant communication. Faster, smarter decision-making. A more empowered team. And yes, you’ll need to address how your brands show up in LLMs . You’ll need to experiment. You’ll need to push legal and IT to allow access to the tools your teams need. You’ll need to connect dots across the entire go-to-market. This is bigger than marketing. It’s GTM transformation. Which is why this moment belongs to CMOs who are willing to lead beyond their lane. Who can align their organizations. Who CEOs rely on for strategic guidance. Who can turn pressure into progress. It’s easy to get buried in the day-to-day. The requests. The expectations. The noise. But great leaders pick a hill. And then they align the organization to take it. So I’ll leave you with the same thought I shared at the end of those Labs: What transformation story are you going to be able to tell a year from now?

Marketing didn’t disappear. It just stopped being taken seriously for a while. For the last few years, especially in tight markets, the #CMO role quietly slipped to the sidelines. Performance dashboards replaced brand conversations. Short-term #growth metrics trumped long-term memory. #Marketing became execution-heavy and influence-light. Which is why the renewed focus on the CMO role at large organisations like #HUL is worth paying attention to. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s correction. When markets tighten, consumers don’t buy more. They buy safer. They choose brands they trust, remember, and feel familiar with. That is not built by discounts or media efficiency alone. That is built by consistent brand thinking over time. Globally, we are seeing this shift. CMOs are being brought back into the core leadership circle, not as campaign managers, but as custodians of demand, relevance, and cultural context. Boards are realising that when growth slows, marketing cannot be reduced to a cost centre. It becomes a growth lever. What’s interesting is how the CMO role itself is changing. The modern CMO is expected to balance creativity with commercial discipline. To understand data without being paralysed by it. To think in years while delivering in quarters. To work closely with sales, finance, and supply chain, not operate in isolation. At companies like HUL, this matters even more. In a crowded #FMCG market, where products are easily replicated and pricing power is limited, brand differentiation is the real moat. And brand differentiation needs leadership at the top. This comeback also says something uncomfortable. Performance marketing alone cannot carry a brand through uncertainty. When every competitor is optimising the same funnels, advantage comes from meaning, not mechanics. The return of the CMO is not about titles. It’s about restoring balance. In volatile markets, growth does not come from shouting louder. It comes from being remembered longer. That’s what marketing leadership, done right, is meant to do.

I've been thinking a lot about what separates great CMOs from good ones. It's not just martech fluency or digital expertise, though those matter. It's the ability to think like a CEO while leading like a CMO. The best marketing leaders I know double down on what makes marketing powerful: creativity, customer connection, and the ability to build loyalty at scale. But they don't stop there. They bring those strengths into every C-suite conversation, about growth, operations, innovation, and the future of the business. Modern CMOs are expected to be as fluent in P&L as they are in brand. As strategic about the business as they are about culture. And that requires a different career path than it did 10 years ago. The role has evolved from "own the brand" to "steward the business and leave it better than you found it." CMOs who thrive in this environment build strong cross-functional alliances, stay adaptable, and champion innovation—not just for their own teams, but across the organization. The bar is higher. But so is the impact.