Report: CMOs Share Marketing Goals with C-suite Executives, But Prioritize Differently

Although CMOs and their C-suite, non-marketing counterparts often have similar objectives, new research suggests that they aren’t always on the same page when it comes to the order in which they want to achieve these goals.

The Economist recently published a global report titled, “Wanted: CMOs with 20/20 Vision,” and data showed that CMOs and C-suite executives have many of the same strategic priorities, such as brand reputation/positioning, customer experience and engagement, and brand awareness. However, the order in which they want to reach these objectives differs.

For example, CMOs want to achieve brand reputation/positioning, brand awareness and overall business growth, in that specific order. C-suite executives want to focus on customer experience and engagement, brand reputation/positioning and brand awareness, in that order.

“While the rest of the C-suite considers customer experience as more of a priority than brand measures, they still see it as a responsibility that ultimately lies within the marketing team,” note the authors of the report.

Marketers Continue to Struggle to Align with Sales

The C-suite isn’t the only group that marketers have trouble aligning with, according to previous research – marketers often have trouble aligning with their sales counterparts as well.

Sojourn Solutions and Econsultancy conducted the “2019 Marketing Operations Maturity Benchmarking Report,” and statistics showed that 41% of top-performing marketers “mostly” align with sales on financial objectives, organizational structure and customer success. However, 45% of all marketers only “somewhat” align with sales on these factors, or claim that they do not align at all.

The majority of top-performing marketers (43%) claim they are “fully aligned” and work collaboratively with key stakeholders across their company.