Are CMOs On The Decline?

There was a 35% decline in the number of CMOs among the 5 most-compensated officers in the C-suite level b/n 1999-2017. Meanwhile, the number of officers representing information or technology increased, far exceed the number of CMOs. Since comp typically reflects an executive’s seniority in an org, this data suggests that the importance of CMO in the organizational hierarchy has declined. Marketing as a function may be less valued today than it once was.

Researchers found several potential explanations for these trends:
📈 # of tech firms has increased over time, while the number of firms in other industries, such as retail and manufacturing, has declined. Both retail and manufacturing sell physical products and rely heavily on the traditional 4P marketing principles (Product, Price, Promotion, and Place).
📈 marketing itself has changed. Customers now spend an increasing % of their income on software-based services that are created, priced, and distributed over the internet. They also get more information about products and services from online sources — bloggers, online reviews, influencers — than ads.


Adapted "Is Technology Subsuming Marketing?" by Shivaram Rajgopal and Anup Srivastava.

Source: HBR

SOURCE: Standard & Poor’s ExecuComp database