When times get tough, do marketing leaders get fired? Three years of results from The CMO Survey indicate the answer is “No.” Looking at Figure 1, we can see that the number of years a

Studying organizations over the years, I have found that new marketing leaders often join companies that have only the beginnings of a marketing function. Facing such a situation, how do you invent a marketing function?

You know the stats:  CMOs are reported to have an average life of just over 2 years.  You also know the gripe:  Marketing has an unproven effect on the firm’s performance in capital markets.  I

<p>The <em>August 2010 CMO Survey</em> included a special section on marketing metrics. Seven important facts stood out when I analyzed the responses from the 574 marketing executives who participated in the survey.</p> <p><strong>1. Revenue metrics dominate:</strong> Revenue metrics (sales, market share) are the primary means they use to evaluate marketing activities. Unfortunately, few link marketing actions to critically important firm outcomes, such as customer retention (15%), profits (14%), brand value (11%), net promoter score (7.5%) and stock market performance (2 percent).</p> <p><strong>2. The quality and use of market insights not evaluated:</strong> While market insights are very important drivers of innovation and growth, only 25% of the firms surveyed use metrics to evaluate the quality of these insights, and only about one-third evaluate how market insights influence managerial decision making.</p>