There are three CMO archetypes, but only one is best for driving growth

Biljana Cvetanovski, Senior Expert in the Marketing & Sales Practice of McKinsey & Company, discusses the key attributes of three types of marketing executive and how the CMO’s rapport with the C-suite is crucial in establishing marketing’s role as a growth driver.
Arguably, there has never been a better time to be a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). CEOs are giving CMOs permission to step up and think boldly about how marketing can drive growth. But to build deep, productive relationships, CMOs have to win over some skeptics in the C-suite.
Only half the CFOs we surveyed, for example, said marketing delivers on the promise of driving growth, and 40 percent don’t think marketing investments should be protected during a downturn.
There is even less symbiosis between marketing and the chief human resources officer (CHRO)—a big Achilles heel, given the need to attract the world-class talent that will allow marketing organizations to thrive. Further complicating matters, just three percent of board members have a marketing background.
The three CMO archetypes
We have found that CMOs are divided into three archetypes, each with distinctive habits and traits: the Unifier, the Friend, and the Loner. However, only one—the Unifier—is the key to future victory. In fact, McKinsey analysis shows that high-growth companies are seven times more likely to have a “Unifier” CMO – someone who fosters robust, collaborative partnerships across the C-suite—as the more isolated archetype we call “Loner.”
Here are the three archetypes that our analysis highlighted:
Unifiers
These CMOs are masters at fostering cross-functional collaboration. They ensure that marketing has a clearly defined role in the eyes of C-suite peers; they adopt the language and mindset of other C-suite executives, and they articulate how marketing can help meet the C-suite’s needs. They also establish mutual accountability and a shared vision with other executives. Sought after by peers for advice, they have a seat at the table when critical decisions are made, have broad profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibility, and are often involved in defining the company’s strategy.
Loners
These CMOs may be great marketers, but they don’t have the full support of, or deep relationships with, their C-suite peers. Loners tend to focus on near-term activities like ad campaigns and social media. They are seen by CEOs as executors of brand stewardship, advertising, and PR, not as equal partners. They are more likely to implement strategy than develop it and often report that their CEO doesn’t understand or trust marketing.
Friends
The most prevalent type of CMO, the Friend has one or two allies in the C-suite, often the CEO, but hasn’t been able to spread marketing’s agenda fully across the organization. Responsible for top-line growth through marketing channels, Friend CMOs typically don’t have broad P&L responsibility or even much influence across the entirety of customer experiences, such as product development and customer service.
What Unifiers do well
Unifier CMOs work directly with relevant members of the C-suite to drive the business’s growth agenda in four areas:
Align with CEO on growth agenda
Unifier CMOs start by making sure the CEO understands how exactly marketing is driving growth, owning the customer, and serving the company’s broader goals and objectives. Unifiers weave many sources of insight and a deep understanding of the customer into a holistic picture of opportunity that the CMO and CEO jointly translate into short- and long-term initiatives.
Adopt the mindset of a CFO
Forty-five percent of CFOs we surveyed said the reason marketing proposals have been declined or not fully funded in the past is because they didn’t demonstrate a clear line to value. To overcome this, Unifier CMOs demonstrate that marketing does in fact drive predictable and significant value. The best marketers use advanced analytics to help quantify the impact that marketing spend has on short- and long-term value. They build business cases with metrics that reflect meaningful financial value (ROI, customer lifetime value, revenue run rate) rather than more prevalent but less valid—in the CFO’s eyes.
Anyway, indicators, such as brand equity, gross rating points (GRPs), or engagement.
Partner with the CTO to unlock the power of data
Companies with Unifier CMOs understand that marketing and technology are inextricable partners in developing capabilities for unlocking value in new ways. Unifier CMOs are about three times as likely as Loners to have their own dedicated data-analytics teams, for example, which help improve the quality and speed of marketing decisions. As partners with the CTO, they develop a shared vision of how data from separate, disconnected systems can be integrated and then used to understand customers at granular levels, personalize interactions, and predict customer behavior. CTOs who feel responsible for the outcomes of marketing initiatives are more likely to devote dedicated resources to them.
Educate and collaborate with the CHRO to win the war for talent
Although companies with Unifiers are roughly three times more likely than those with Loners to attract and develop talent that balances analytics and creativity, they still report difficulty in meeting their talent needs.
Overall there is a massive talent gap, a stunning 82 percent of Fortune 500 executives don’t believe they recruit highly talented people. Relying on legacy recruiting and training programs won’t do. The CMO can play a critical and influential role here by engaging with the CHRO, educating her about marketing’s diverse talent requirements and the need to evolve the organization’s culture for the next generation.
You can’t go it alone
Even the best CMO can’t do it all on their own. They need to create networks across the C-suite. But the C-suite has an important role to play as well to help the business drive growth. Ultimately, the C-suite needs to ask itself: Is the CMO empowered to function as a Unifier or are they destined to be a Loner or Friend?
The author would like to thank Julien Boudet, Brian Gregg, Jason Heller, and Jesko Perrey for their contributions to this article.
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