San Jose, Calif.  (August 18, 2014)—Not to worry, the global marketing economy is robust and picking up pace, according to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s eighth “State of Marketing” report, which was released today. And more importantly, chief marketers are confident that they can meet management’s revenue and market share goals for the coming year.

A surprising 81 percent of the 525 global marketers surveyed by the CMO Council believe management mandates for top-line revenue growth and market share are realistic and attainable in 2014. However, only 26 percent report they are halfway toward achieving these goals. The encouraging outlook from the world’s top marketers includes a number of important indicators, among them:

• Some 55 percent plan headcount additions compared to 22 percent who expect reductions.


• Fifty-four (54) percent of marketers expect budget increases, and 27 percent believe their budgets will stay the same.


• Just 10 percent of marketing leaders polled believe their jobs are at risk or on the line this year.


• Seventy-five (75) percent of senior marketers received a salary increase or bonus in the past year, and 83 percent believe this will happen in the next fiscal year if they perform well.


• Sixty-nine (69) percent say they are trusted strategic members of the C-suite and/or increasing their stature and credibility with key business leaders.

The “State of Marketing” study, sponsored by NetBase, provides an in-depth view of global marketing vitality and direction. The benchmark report serves as a valuable resource and reference for the CMO Council’s 7,000 members in 110 countries, who collectively control more than $400 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures.

The report, based on a 50-point assessment concluded during the first quarter of 2014, is an invaluable, peer-inspired marketing planning tool to help calibrate, prioritize and make a business case for marketing investments. It is widely regarded as the most rigorous and comprehensive report of its kind in the marketing sector, aggregating global and regional views on the following:

• Marketing challenges, accomplishments and organizational priorities


• Global and regional marketing dynamics and intentions


• Transformation plans and marketing technology investments


• Allocation of marketing and media spend and budgeting


• Organizational development and talent sourcing


• Agency turnover and performance measurement


• Compensation and professional development goals

“A big benefit to marketers is the growing level of collaboration and interaction with functional heads and line-of-business leaders,” notes Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. “This is giving marketing more weight in strategic decision-making and also ensuring organizational alignment around the customer experience given marketing’s increasing ownership of customer data and insight.”

Some 30 percent of survey participants say today’s CMO is equal to other C-level peers while another 45 percent feel that this is only sometimes the case. Only 20 percent believe that the CMO is not equal to other C-level decision-makers in terms of status and influence.

The report also revealed that CMOs are most inclined to partner and interact with chief financial officers (58 percent), chief information officers (53 percent) and chief sales officers (51 percent). Increasingly, they are aligning with chief HR officers, chief operating officers (40 percent) and, to a lesser degree, chief procurement officers (15 percent).

While 63 percent of marketers rate the contributions of their agency partners as extremely valuable or pretty good, 66 percent are planning to make one or more changes to their agency roster in 2014. Lack of business results, value-added thinking and uninspired creative top the list of reasons for these changes.

The complete report is available to download at www.cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership/reports/283/download for $199 (USD), and a complimentary executive summary of the report and accompanying infographic can be sourced as well. CMO Council premium content subscribers ($495 annually) can download the full report at no cost.

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 7,000-plus members control more than $400 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 20,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. The council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), LoyaltyLeaders.org, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, Market Sense-Ability Center, Digital Marketing Performance Institute, GeoBranding Center and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). More information about the CMO Council is available at www.cmocouncil.org. 

Media Contact:

Crystal Berry

Director, Marketing Programs and Communications

cberry@cmocouncil.org