Deloitte’s New CMO Organization Benchmark Study Provides Roadmap for the Evolution of Modern Marketing Organizations

Insights from a new study of over 400 senior marketing executives across the globe illuminate how top CMOs and their companies are organizing and operationalizing their marketing functions to succeed in today’s disruptive business climate while providing a roadmap for critical planning and decision making needed to ready and evolve modern marketing organizations for the future.

At the time of this announcement, Pete Krainik, CEO and founder, The CMO Club, said —

“Today’s Marketing Organization is so much more than storytelling. It’s all about seizing the opportunity on the current – and future – state of the CMO’s role AND the marketing organization itself and building relationships both internally with the C-suite and externally with your customers. (The) CMOs need to be asking ‘how do we forge a clear path forward’?” 

Pete added, “This CMO curated benchmark study provides senior marketers a way to cut through the hype through proven CMO insights to build a viable, successful marketing organization and foster even deeper relationships both internally and externally that will drive growth for the overall organization.”

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The CMO Club, in thought leadership with Deloitte, developed the comprehensive study of marketing organizations today to explore how the near decade-long evolution of the CMO role itself and the ever-increasing demands from the business functions have evolved. The study analyzes reporting structures; the span of control; scope and functions; outsourcing and insourcing strategies; talent and succession planning; and performance measurement for modern marketers and their organizations.

The study captured benchmark data from more than 400 CMOs from across the globe, averaging nine years of cumulative CMO or head of marketing experience. Survey data was contextualized with insights from more than 20 CMOs participating in the CMO Club’s Fall 2019 Summit roundtable session, and additionally, with in-depth interviews from brand leaders in a wide range of industries, including Aon, Capital Group, Highmark Health, Hostess Brands, Petco, Taco Bell, and Wells Fargo.

“In order to succeed in today’s ever-changing business environment, C-suite leaders are challenged to adapt to new trends while executing tried-and-true strategies,” said Jennifer Veenstra managing director, CMO Program, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Jennifer continued, “Having benchmark data will help CMOs and senior marketing leaders develop, design and implement changes that can transform their organizations’ marketing efforts.”

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By studying and building a baseline of data around marketing organizations and operational structures, the benchmarking report provides valuable insights for marketing leaders to compare and measure their roles and organizations to their global marketing peers, determine critical decision areas to address their biggest challenges and establish a roadmap to evolve their marketing organizations for success in the future. Key highlights from the report include:

• Gaining ground in the C-suite. Seventy-one percent of the CMOs indicate their role is considered part of the C-suite; 59 percent report directly to the CEO and 27 percent report to the COO or President.
• Accountability is far more than ever. More than 50 percent of the CMOs surveyed indicate they are responsible for 11 or more areas of marketing activities and identified still other activities they’d like to bring into marketing’s purview to further drive success.
• Measuring effectiveness establishes success, builds credibility, fosters collaboration. The CMOs report the top three measurements of success in the eyes of their CEO are awareness (51 percent), sales/revenue (31 percent), and media ROI (29 percent).
• Identifying and closing skills gaps, finding the right fit. Three primary skills emerged as the biggest: data science (78 percent), analytics (68 percent), and user experience (60%).
• Balancing internal and external talent. The CMOs are flexing by building in-house capabilities, tapping external agencies, and working with a hybrid model of both.
• Filling the leadership void. A full 61 percent of respondents said they do not have a direct report who could step into the CMO role tomorrow.

Currently, The CMO Club is the world’s most engaged and inspired community of Senior Marketing Executives who help each other solve their biggest challenges within a candid, trusted and sharing environment.

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