well as from multiple interviews we conducted with top CMOs. Continuing our partnership with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), we gathered more than 100 perspectives on growth and relationships inside the C-suite of Fortune 1000 companies in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including more than 75 CEOs and CMOs. And for the first time, we also included CFOs in our research. Finally, we discuss why it’s crucial for organizations to reposition marketing as the driving force behind growth strategies. Companies can start by putting the customer back at the heart of their business model and by making the CMO their primary custodian of the customer. They can empower the CMO to become a general manager who actively participates in strategic planning. CEOs, for their part, should ensure a tighter partnership between the CMO and CFO to build an enterprise measurement model that can support the critical role of marketing in the company’s growth plan. How marketing slid to the side In our initial 2023 research, we found that CEOs and CMOs weren’t always on the same page about the role of marketing in their companies. That sentiment persists. CMOs tell us that CEOs still don’t seem to understand the full power of marketing, even if they think they do. In many organizations, the remit of marketing has been limited in scope, with CMOs having little or no input on strategy. Compounding this is the fact that no one can seem to agree on the right way to determine success. Some CEOs think CMOs aren’t measuring the appropriate markers and are overly focused on the metrics that matter only to them. Others in the C-suite view marketing as tangential to a company’s real business. As one CMO at a consumer company tells us, “CFOs often view marketing as a cost center rather than an investment.” No one owns the customer Customers now live and shop in an omnichannel world and demand that their favorite brands meet them wherever and whenever they want. More than 80 percent of consumers use multiple channels for product research or purchase. 3 And B2B buyers now use ten points of interaction during a typical sales journey , compared with only five back in 2016. 4 It’s imperative that companies thoughtfully design how they show up for customers at every touchpoint. However, the rush to modernize and meet customers at all these touchpoints has resulted in fragmentation. In recent years, many companies have added new executive roles such as chief digital officer, chief commercial officer, or chief data officer. The outcome has been a choppy customer journey, with customers receiving different messages from different departments because each executive looks at the customer through a different lens. CEOs today no longer know where to turn to get the voice of the customer. As one chief marketing and sales officer of a global automobile company tells us, “Very few companies in our industry have figured out how to clearly delineate the responsibilities of marketing, ownership of the customer journey, and digital efforts.” The impact of marketing is often unclear Marketers are typically the ones in a company who deeply understand what customers want. Marketing departments house consumer insights. They continually analyze market trends, deploy deep qualitative and quantitative research tools to identify customer segments, map buying journeys, and figure out preferences. They’re able to personalize messaging , reaching 3 Tamara Charm, Nancy Lu, and Kelsey Robinson, “ US consumers send mixed signals in an uncertain economy ,” McKinsey, April 28, 2023. 4 Candace Lun Plotkin, Jennifer Stanley, and Liz Harrison, with Víctor García de la Torre, “ Five fundamental truths: How B2B winners keep growing , McKinsey, September 12, 2024. 3 The CMO’s comeback: Aligning the C-suite to drive customer-centric growth