Per say, CMOs are used to pressure, but their existence is broadly challenged. Lately, several big-name companies have done away with the CMO position altogether - including Johnson & Johnson, Uber & also the well-known German beauty retailer Douglas. It’s an accelerating trend that slowly began a few years ago.

Companies are re-assessing, re-structuring & consolidating marketing duties & responsibilities with executives who have a broader area of responsibility. Those areas are often include sales, commercial functions such as product development, growth and more data & science driven functions as consumer experience & insights. This has led to titles such as “Chief Growth Officer”, “Chief Experience Officer”, “Chief Commercial Officer” or “Chief Brand Officer”.

It almost feels, that the word “marketing” needs a marketing campaign because there is a lack of understanding amongst organisations on the importance of the brand and marketing per se is no longer encompassing all that goes into brand building, consumer relationship building & growing revenues.

Marketing is not something that is going away or can be easily substituted by data only. Yes, data is a powerful tool, that everyone should use to generate more insights in order to be able to deliver better experiences that will lead to more engagement & ultimately also growth. But it’s not a question of marketing or data, it’s the combination of both that unlocks the full potential. It’s about combining the best of science with the best of art, than no matter how good & valuable your data is, data won’t be able to create emotions, inspirations & tangible experience that make consumers fall in love with your brand & build lasting relationships.