In the age of marketing accountability, one expects more CMOs to have quantitative and nuanced perspectives on what works, when, for which market segments, how, and why?   But the reality, as evidenced in a CMO survey, highlights a paradox and the opportunity for those who get the marketing effectiveness question right.  Only 1 in 3 marketers have a quantitative understanding of the impact of marketing spend, i.e., sales response function.

Source: CMO Survey February 2014.

The Paradox:   When the same marketers are posed a question on Marketing ROI and how it has changed, CMOs appear confident in responding with a quantitative metric.    If you don’t have a sales response function, how can you venture an ROI?

***********************

Herein, lies the big opportunity for a select group of CMOs to stand out of the crowd, and befriend the CFO (one who obsesses with the real numbers that matter to any business), CTO (one who helps with ensuring that the technology platform and data exist), and CAO (one who can help make sense of the data in the business context and provide visibility into the future, even if it is blurry).