This is the marketing deep dive from the interim findings of Achieving Sustained Value Creation, presented in June 2023. It opens on a problem: marketing influence is decreasing, and the question of whether the function is losing its seat at the table.
Its answer is that the role of marketing remains, but the bar has been raised. The deck then works through what a marketing leader would have to do to become a driving force and, beyond that, a unifying force in the C-suite.
Key findings
- Three forces are named as raising the bar: stakeholders becoming louder, a generational shift, and the impact of technology.
- The old claim to authority has expired. In 2016 marketing offered a window on the world and one version of the truth. By 2023 it sits alongside the CIO, CTO, CDO, and CIAO, and the deck argues that what a company now needs is one version of the future.
- The scope of the audience widens. The shift described is from consumers to society, and from listening to embracing future-forward disruption.
- Five foundational pillars are set out, and marketing is described as paramount in all of them: a utopian vision of the emerging future, an aspirational role for the business, a holistic strategy for value creation, commitment to real change, and a safe space.
- Unifying CMOs are described as having a mutual relationship with C-suite peers, better protected budget, and 48 percent longer tenure, citing a McKinsey study.
Working across the C-suite
The route back to influence runs through other functions. The deck names purpose translation, using the brand as a vehicle for transparency, and integrating the thinking between CEO and CMO.
Two specific partnerships follow: with HR on the employer brand, and with finance around storytelling.
The finance case is illustrated by the CMO and CFO relationship at Indeed. Sean McSherry, senior vice president and head of finance, is quoted saying that trust and close collaboration let them be more flexible with investment, fund opportunities in real time, and iterate along the way.
Innovating against unmet needs
The deck treats innovation as a stakeholder activity rather than a product activity, framed as stakeholder innovation and innovating against unmet needs.
The change model has three modes: raising awareness, enabling behavior change, and building engagement, mapped to think, do, and feel.
Three brands, three modes
Volvo is the think example, educating both children and the industry on safety.
Oatly is the feel example, engaging consumers to join the movement and engaging the industry boldly.
Lush is the do example, inspiring consumers to switch to shampoo bars, after which the deck records that the industry quickly followed.
The close, and the question put to the room
The argument ends where it started, on the seat at the table, and turns it into a choice. If not now, when. If not me, who. The deck asks marketers to rewrite the stories they tell themselves.
The session then hands over to the participants, who are asked in groups of three to share interventions that worked and the critical enablers, and interventions that did not and the critical barriers.
Scope and limitations
These are interim findings presented as a working storyline. The file still carries production notes and placeholders where examples and personal stories were to be added, so the case selection was not final at the time of presentation.
Source
This page summarises Achieving Sustained Value Creation: Interim Findings Marketing Deep Dive, by Institute for Real Growth, Saïd Business School, Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, June 2023.