Making the Perfect CMO: 1. What are the three obstacles preventing marketing’s effectiveness? * More than 75 percent of marketers and nonmarketers say that marketing has become more important to their companies during the past five years. But at more than half of all companies, marketing and the CEO agenda are not aligned. * Higher expectations for marketing have driven nearly 70 percent of all companies to reorganize their marketing departments during the same period. But a major component of many such reorganizations, the position of chief marketing officer, remains ill-defined. * Measurable outcomes are now expected for marketing programs — 66 percent of executives say true ROI analytics are marketing’s greatest need. But most companies are still using surrogate metrics, such as awareness, instead of ROI measurements. 2. How has marketing’s primary focus shifted over the years? * 1950/60s—centralized conformity * 1980s- fragmentation of media, markets, and consumer attention * Today- continual, discontinous change, globalization, internet, rising info transparency * In the era of mass marketing, the primary source of value for most companies was their products or brands; today, value is moving to the customer interface. * Marketing’s focus, formerly on advertising-based brand development, has shifted to “below the line” operations capable of driving short-term, measurable financial returns. * Companies’ sales efforts, once characterized as “one size fits all,” are transforming to meet customer demands for unique solutions and value-added services. 3. Why has marketing grown in importance? * Ferocity of competition in their industry as one of the top two factors underlying the growth in marketing’s importance. * believe the function’s most important contributions lie in zones