"CMO's Don't Have Any Effect On A Company's Financial Performance"

Then It's Got To Be The CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, CTO

By David Miranda

An article on adage.com today titled "CMOs Rapped For Having Zero Impact On Sales", reported the following:

"A study to be published in the Journal of Marketing that covered 167 companies including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and Apple over a five-year period concludes that CMOs on top management teams don't have any effect on a company's financial performance."

The study, "Chief Marketing Officers: A Study of their Presence in Firms' Top Management Teams," is slated for the January 2008 issue of the publication.

According the the AdAge article, "Among the companies studied, less than half, 40%, had CMOs in their top-management teams. As a comparison, 97.2% of the firms in the study had a CFO in that team."

On its release this study is destined to create considerable debate in the C-Suites of both large and small companies. It will reinforce the positions of those who believe that the marketing discipline is a necessary evil and make it more difficult for those who believe that marketing is the key driver of revenue, market share, and brand equity.

This author is frankly biased to the latter proposition. This position may be supported by in a soon-to-be-released study by Booz Allen Hamilton titled "CMO Thought Leaders: The Rise of the Strategic Marketer" based on 15 in-depth interviews with some of the marketing world's best-known CMOs. The main takeaway of the study is that measuring CMO performance based on financial performance alone is a mistake.

As I have evangelized many times - before someone buys anything, they have to want it first. That's what marketing does - getting consumers (and clients) to want your stuff more than your competitors. It is simply foolish not to have a competent CMO in the C-Suite if the CEO is not someone like a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Richard Branson or someone else who understands the critical role of marketing in the short and long success of a company.

For the 60% of the companies in the CMO study who do not have a CMO in the C-Suite, wake up. In a world where preference is perishable and insurgent competitors are "at the gate", not having a CMO in the boardroom is like not having a doctor in the operating room.

Your critical patient (the company) won't be saved by analyzing charts and monitors.

Read This And Reap

Calling It The Way She Sees It - And She Calls It Right

By David Miranda

I just finished reading Julie Roehm's article, Signs Its Time To Fire Your CMO, and I highly recommend that all marketers (and non-marketers) do the same.

What companies, large and small, need to understand is that great marketing is done by those who challenge the comfort zone of the status quo; those that market like insurgents rather than incumbents; those who understand that there is a significant difference between those wanting to succeed and those not being afraid to fail.

Julie refers to The Coca-Cola Company's former CMO, the legendary Sergio Zyman. He was and remains a marketing insurgent. Now a successful consultant and author, Sergio's nickname, during his tenures at Coke, by friends and foes alike, as the Ayacola for his brash, yet innovative marketing prowess. Take a read of his first book, "The End Of Marketing As We Know It". His mantra was and is that "marketing is about selling more stuff, to more people, more often to make more money." On his watch as CMO, The Coca-Cola Company generated record sales and profits. Coke has changed marketing executives several times since his departure, but has not been able to achieve the same level of success.

Perhaps the Board of The Coca-Cola Company (and others) should read Julie's article. Perhaps they could learn a thing or two.

Borrowing from Coke's old tag line - Julie's "the real thing".

Keep it real. Thanks, Julie!

Everyone Thinks They Are A Marketing Genius

Marketing Joins The Top Ten List Of Things We All Think We're Good At

By David Miranda

The human spirit is a wonderful thing. Long live the human spirit.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who watch American Idol, particularly the tryouts, you can't help but grimace, smile, chuckle, cringe at those contestants who think, not only that they can sing, but more audaciously, think they are the next American Idol. Like the title of Sen. Barack Obama's best seller, it is the "The Audacity Of Hope". It is what is great about America. We are a nation where anything and everything is possible. But let's be honest, hope is not substitute for talent

I have put together a Top Ten List of things we all think we're good at.

1. Singing


2. Minding other people's business


3. Holding one's liquor


4. Being a better driver than others on the road


5. Selecting the ideal mate for others


6. Being the boss


7. Understanding the opposite sex


8. Being a better contestant when watching those on game shows


9. Being a good listener


10. Marketing

Yes, marketing makes the Top Ten List.

I have been in countless marketing meetings attended by lawyers, accountants, technology experts, operations executives, research analysts, etc. etc. All, by their comments, feedback, and suggestions. claim to be marketers. "I think the logo should be blue", "The tag line doesn't do anything for me." "I think the music in the ad should be a little more upbeat". "The ad needs more copy." Etc. Etc. Etc. All marketing experts.

A friend of mine, Sergio Zyman, the former CMO of The Coca-Cola Company, shared with me an interesting story. He had just finished some television spots for Coke and reported this to Roberto Goizueta, the late and venerable Chairman and CEO of the company. Mr. Goizueta asked Sergio for tapes of the ads. Asked why, Mr. Goizueta said he wanted to show them to his wife who had a good feeling for choosing ads and her feedback would be invaluable. Sergio, not missing a beat, agreed, but with one condition. "What's that?", Mr. Goizueta responded. Sergio replied, "On the condition that she buy all the cases of Coke that I am supposed to sell." Sergio went on to explain that the advertising was targeted to consumers who were going to buy Coke and Mrs. Goizueta was not the target audience." Mr. Goizueta got the point.

Good marketing is that which is targeted at the people who will buy something. In most cases, the people sitting around marketing meetings, particularly the non-marketers, need to focus less on their personal tastes and opinions and more on those who actually buy the stuff.

I highly doubt that a female CMO of a men's fashion retailer wonders how she will look in the fashions marketed. Or does a 50-year old CMO of a children's toy company actually select a marketing campaign based on his own toy preferences?

For those non-marketers in the world of business, I have two solutions. Either leave marketing to the marketers or learn marketing. Unlike singing, marketing expertise can be an acquired talent.