The modern CMO is the forgotten architect of growth

Aug 20, 2026

Every economic cycle creates a familiar executive conversation. Revenue is under pressure. Costs are rising. Margins are tightening. The board wants efficiency. The CEO asks every function to "do more with less." Then someone looks at the marketing budget. The assumption is almost reflexive: marketing is discretionary spending. It is a cost to be managed. But what if that assumption is fundamentally wrong? What if the very function being asked to do more with less is the same function responsible for creating more in the first place?

This is the paradox facing Chief Marketing Officers today. At the precise moment when organizations need growth more than ever, many are treating marketing as an expense rather than an investment. The result is a gradual erosion of one of the few sustainable competitive advantages a company has: its ability to create demand, shape perception and drive growth.

Marketing is not a cost centre. Marketing is the growth engine of the company.

The forgotten purpose of marketing

At some point over the past two decades, many organizations have redefined the role of the CMO.

Instead of being seen as the executive responsible for market creation, customer demand, brand value and commercial growth, the CMO has increasingly become responsible for campaigns, communications, events, websites and lead generation.

These activities matter. But they are outputs of marketing, not the purpose of marketing.

The purpose of marketing is growth. This is not a new idea.

Peter Drucker famously argued that the purpose of business is to create a customer. If that is true, then marketing is not a supporting function. It is one of the primary drivers of enterprise value.

Recent research reinforces this point. According to Signal49, formerly operating as The Conference Board of Canada, marketing activity contributed approximately $130 billion to Canadian GDP in 2024, up from $94 billion in 2019. It’s undeniable that marketing is a substantial economic force that drives demand, investment, innovation and business growth.

Yet in many boardrooms, marketing budgets continue to be scrutinized more aggressively than growth targets.

That is a strategic contradiction.

The four Ps reveal what marketing should actually own

One reason marketing is frequently undervalued is because many organizations have forgotten what marketers were originally responsible for.

The traditional “Four Ps of Marketing” remains to be one of the most powerful frameworks in business. It reveals something many executives overlook: Marketing was never just about promotion.

Product

Marketing defines what the company sells. Not manufacturing. Not engineering. Not finance.

Marketing's role is to understand customer needs and translate them into products, services, experiences, features, packaging, design and positioning. A great marketer doesn't simply advertise a product. A great marketer influences what product should exist in the first place.

Apple's success did not emerge solely from superior technology. It emerged from a deep understanding of customer experience, design, simplicity and market demand. Marketing was not sitting at the end of the supply chain creating advertisements. It was influencing strategy from the beginning.

Place

Marketing determines where and how value reaches customers.

This includes channels, distribution strategies, digital experiences, retail presence, partner ecosystems, customer journeys and commerce. Today, "place" has become dramatically more complex. Customers move seamlessly between digital and physical environments. They research products through social channels, discover brands through creators, compare options online and purchase through multiple ecosystems.

Determining where a brand shows up and how that experience feels is a strategic growth decision, not an operational afterthought.

Price

Pricing is one of the most powerful growth levers in business. Yet pricing discussions often occur without meaningful marketing input. Marketing understands customer value, competitive positioning, brand equity, willingness to pay and perceived differentiation. These insights influence pricing power more than almost any internal financial model.

The strongest brands rarely compete on price alone. They compete on value. And value is largely created through marketing.

Promotion

Ironically, promotion is the area where many organizations have confined marketing. Advertising. Public relations. Content. Social media. Campaigns. Sales enablement.

These are all important. But they represent only one quarter of the strategic mandate.

When organizations reduce marketing to promotion, they effectively reduce the CMO's influence to communications while expecting growth outcomes. That is like asking a football coach to win games while only allowing them to coach one quarter of the field.

The expansion of the CMO role

The modern CMO faces an unprecedented mandate.

Today's marketing leader must understand:

Brand strategy,
Customer experience,
Commerce,
Data analytics,
AI,
Technology platforms,
Content operations,
Regulatory requirements,
Revenue performance,
Customer acquisition, and
Customer retention.

McKinsey's research argues that growth increasingly depends on integrated marketing operating models that connect data, creativity, technology and commercial execution. Organizations that effectively align these capabilities tend to create stronger growth outcomes than those operating in silos.

The challenge is that many organizations have increased expectations while reducing resources.

CMOs are expected to drive growth.
CMOs are expected to modernize technology.
CMOs are expected to produce more content.
CMOs are expected to accelerate personalization.
CMOs are expected to implement AI in their processes.
CMOs are expected to demonstrate ROI.

And they are often expected to achieve all of this with fewer people and smaller budgets. The question is not whether marketing can do more with less. The better question is why organizations continue asking the growth function to absorb disproportionate efficiency pressure.

AI is a force multiplier, not a replacement

The latest chapter in this story is artificial intelligence. There is growing enthusiasm about how AI will increase productivity, automate workflows, reduce operational costs and enable personalization at scale. The enthusiasm is justified. McKinsey's recent research suggests AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape marketing operations, moving organizations from campaign-centric models toward continuous growth systems. Deloitte similarly highlights how content supply chains are becoming strategic growth engines through automation and operational efficiency. These developments are significant. But they should not be misunderstood.

AI can automate execution.
AI cannot define vision.

AI can generate content.
AI cannot determine what a brand should stand for.

AI can optimize performance.
AI cannot create category-defining strategy.

The companies most likely to benefit from AI will not be those that replace marketers. They will be those that amplify great marketers. The difference matters. Because every major competitive shift in business history has rewarded organizations that combine new technology with superior leadership.

The enduring competitive advantage

Consider the world's most admired brands: Nike, Apple, Disney, Lululemon and Starbucks. None built their success solely through operational efficiency. None became icons because they reduced advertising budgets. None created customer loyalty through technology alone.

They succeeded because they understood customers better than competitors and translated those insights into products, experiences, pricing strategies and brands people cared about. That is marketing. And that is the responsibility of marketing leadership.

The future CMO will undoubtedly need to be more technologically fluent than previous generations. Understanding AI, marketing technology, data platforms, measurement frameworks and digital experiences is now part of the role. But technology expertise should enhance strategic influence, not replace it. The best CMOs of the next decade will be equal parts strategist, technologist, storyteller, economist and growth architect.

The real question for CEOs and boards

The conversation should not be whether marketing can do more with less. The real question is whether organizations are empowering the function responsible for growth to do more with more. Not more spending for the sake of spending. More influence. More strategic ownership. More accountability. More partnership with the CEO. More authority over the drivers of growth embedded within product, place, price and promotion.

In an era defined by AI, economic uncertainty and relentless competition, the companies that win will not be those that simply cut costs fastest. They will be the organizations that grow smarter. And growth has always started in the same place: with a deep understanding of customers and a leader capable of translating that understanding into commercial success. That leader is the Chief Marketing Officer. The sooner organizations remember that, the faster they will grow.

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Author:
Michael Annett, Digital Transformation Executive – Financial Services, Adobe