From a Harvard Business Review article, “Why CMOs NEVER Last”:
Something is amiss in the relationship between chief executives and their marketing officers. Four-fifths of CEOs say they don’t trust or are unimpressed by their CMOs. Not surprisingly, CMOs have the briefest tenure in the C-suite, and their churn can mean serious internal business disruptions.
The articles goes on to argue this is mostly due to the job description and expectations being set up poorly.
I don’t entirely disagree; however, I have studied advertising and marketing and methinks the BIGGER issue is that marketers have drifted, forgetting that marketing is about SELLING THINGS – not followers, fans, likes, shares or hashtags.
To be clear, we HERE, in THIS community, are committed to the discipline of direct response marketing.
The key differentiator of it over all other forms of advertising and branding is MEASUREMENT: measurement of actual responses, leads and ULTIMATELY sales made, clients acquired.
Everything else is “fake news,” leading you to confuse activity with accomplishment.
We can NOT operate in a world where awards are given for creativity, nor can we be lulled into false happiness with circulation numbers in publications, hashtags, Nielsen ratings in broadcast, the number of followers on Facebook, visitors to our website, etc.
WE do not care about any of that.
We care about “old” metrics like profits and revenue.
Every guru who links themselves to a new media must invent their own metrics to try and persuade you to look elsewhere for success.
A magician’s illusion to draw your eye away from what’s really going on.
In fact, if any marketing or advertising mystic tries to convince you THEIR deal cannot be measured and held to strict ROI metrics, RUN.
I’m often made fun of because of my heavy use of direct mail, always by people who are not successful advertisers, who do not know the actual numbers, who consider me dull and dated.
Grow up.
Being one of the “cool kids” and doing what’s new and shiny won’t make you rich.
I know we’re only two months into this NEW year, but let me keep reminding you of the “old school” fundamentals that work.