‘CMO Outlook Index’, by Gfk, examined executives’ perceptions of the factors that drive marketing
A global survey of more than 600 CMOs and senior marketing decision makers, titled “CMO Outlook Index” and conducted by GfK, examined what these executives’ perceptions are of the success factors that drive effective marketing in their companies.
In the responses received for the survey, which will be published in September, it was evident that most senior marketing leaders feel that there is significant potential for improvement in their organizations.
In total, the survey analyzed three core pillars of marketing effectiveness, namely “Impact” (team capability and ROI demonstration), “Alignment” (leveraging business value and brand purpose) and “Investment” (brand commitment) board with the brand and investment in marketing).
The GfK global study found that there is still plenty of room for progress, and while 40% of senior marketers say they have all the necessary capabilities in at least one of the areas, only 7% say they feel perfectly equipped in all three. pillars.
“It’s relatively common for CMOs to have optimized marketing team capability, company brand alignment, or brand investment. The big drop comes when we look at who feels optimally positioned in all three areas. Our ‘CMO’s Findings Outlook Index’ help marketing leaders understand how their peers perceive marketing and where growth is needed,” explained Gonzalo Garcia Villanueva, Marketing Director at GfK.
In the first pillar, 20% of decision makers stated that they believe they are in an ideal position with respect to “Impact”. According to respondents, they have a strong team with all the necessary skills and a good understanding of which marketing activities, channels and levers provide the best ROI. Of those, 59% said they are extremely confident that their data systems, analytics and insights will be able to answer the critical business questions of the future.
These percentages contrast with the fact that only 28% of the complete set of respondents could make the same statement as the rest. “Impact” leaders are more likely than average to say they have mature capabilities in areas such as customer segmentation, campaign optimization, and extracting insights from data.
In the “Alignment” pillar, which is related to leveraging business value and brand purpose, a quarter of the survey’s marketing decision makers strongly agree that their company has a clearly defined mission and purpose, in addition to business goals, and that the brand also contributes to the company’s commercial success.
According to the analysis, 81% of marketing leaders include product development as a marketing responsibility, compared to an average of 69% of all respondents. Additionally, 78% say the same about pricing, compared to an average of 67%.
Finally, in the “Investment” pillar, GfK aimed to analyze the balance between long-term brand building and short-term sales growth, as well as the support of CEOs and CFOs in investing in future brand strategies. long term.
According to the data, 19% of marketers in the survey consider themselves to rank high in both categories, and within that group, 60% say they spend at least 7 out of 10 of their marketing resources on building brand brands. long term, compared to 52% of all respondents.
