For years, headlines about the chief marketing officer have sounded alarmist.
Average tenure remains shorter than most other C-suite roles. Some major companies periodically remove the position entirely. A growing number of organisations are choosing alternative titles such as chief growth officer, chief customer officer or commercial lead.
But the latest data suggests the reality is far more nuanced. Far from fading away, the CMO role is evolving into something broader, more strategic and, in many cases, more powerful.
Research from Spencer Stuart analysing Fortune 500 companies reveals a marketing leadership landscape in transition. While traditional CMO titles may be becoming less common, marketing expertise are increasingly shaping senior leadership careers, corporate growth strategies and even the route to the CEO role.
In short, the title may be changing, but marketing’s influence at the top of organisations is not.
The tenure question
One of the most commonly cited criticisms of the CMO role is its relatively short tenure.
According to the data, the average CMO tenure at Fortune 500 companies was 4.3 years in 2024, a slight increase from 4.2 years in 2023. While that still trails the broader C-suite average of 4.9 years, the gap is narrower than often portrayed.
And crucially, the data suggests the short tenure narrative is often misunderstood.
Nearly 65 per cent of CMOs leaving their roles move into similar or more senior positions, either through promotion within their company or by stepping into another major marketing leadership role elsewhere.
In other words, the shorter tenure may reflect career mobility rather than instability.
There is also evidence that marketing experience is increasingly valuable in senior leadership pathways. Around 10 per cent of CMOs who leave their role go on to become CEOs, while 37 per cent of Fortune 500 CEOs have had some marketing experience during their career.
That suggests marketing is increasingly viewed as a strategic business discipline rather than simply a communications function. For retailers in particular (where customer understanding sits at the heart of competitive advantage) this shift may be especially significant.
Why some companies don’t have CMOs
Another statistic often cited as evidence of marketing’s decline is the number of companies without a central marketing leader.
In 2024, 66 per cent of Fortune 500 companies had a C-suite marketing leader, down slightly from the previous year. That leaves 34 per cent operating without a traditional enterprise-wide CMO role.
However, organisational structure, rather than marketing relevance, is usually the driver behind this figure.
Some companies decentralise marketing across regions or business units. Others merge marketing responsibilities with commercial, growth or customer functions. In some cases, marketing sits under other leadership roles such as merchandising or strategy.
Large organisations often shift these structures over time depending on strategic priorities.
For example, US retailer Lowe’s removed its CMO role in 2022, placing marketing under its chief merchandising officer before reinstating the role in 2024. Starbucks followed a similar pattern, eliminating the CMO role before later bringing marketing back into the C-suite under a global chief brand officer.
These structural shifts illustrate a broader reality: marketing leadership is rarely static.
Instead, companies frequently reshape marketing responsibilities depending on growth strategy, customer focus and organisational design.
The title is changing
Perhaps the most visible sign of marketing’s evolution is the changing nature of job titles. Only 40 per cent of Fortune 500 marketing leaders now hold the title chief marketing officer.
Elsewhere:
- 33 per cent hold marketing leadership titles without “chief”, such as senior vice president of marketing
- 16 per cent have hybrid titles, such as chief marketing and communications officer
- 11 per cent lead marketing without the word “marketing” in their title at all
Instead, terms such as growth, commercial, customer, brand and strategy are increasingly common. These shifts reflect a broader trend. Marketing is being integrated with revenue generation and customer experience.
Rather than operating as a standalone department focused on campaigns and brand activity, modern marketing leaders are increasingly responsible for commercial performance and end-to-end customer strategy.
For retailers, this alignment is particularly relevant. As customer journeys become more complex, spanning mobile browsing, physical stores, online purchases and returns, the boundaries between marketing, commerce and customer experience continue to blur.
Many organisations are therefore looking for leaders who can oversee the entire growth engine, not just communications.
The CEO–CMO growth connection
Research from McKinsey highlights just how important marketing leadership can be for growth. Companies where CEOs place marketing at the centre of their growth strategy are twice as likely to achieve annual growth above five per cent compared with those that do not.
Yet the relationship between CEOs and CMOs is not always straightforward.
One major challenge is the increasingly fragmented nature of customer-related roles. Many organisations now have chief digital officers, chief customer officers and chief growth officers alongside the CMO. In some companies, responsibility for elements of the traditional marketing mix (product, pricing, distribution and promotion) is split across multiple executives.
This fragmentation can create confusion over ownership of growth strategy. Research suggests more than two-thirds of CMOs report that two or more executives oversee marketing-related activities within their organisation. Without clear alignment, that can lead to competing priorities or unclear accountability for customer growth.
At the same time, many CEOs lack marketing experience themselves. Estimates suggest only around 10 per cent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing backgrounds, while most come from finance or operational roles.
This knowledge gap can sometimes lead to underestimation of marketing’s strategic impact, particularly as modern marketing becomes more data-driven and technologically complex.
The measurement problem
Another challenge lies in how marketing success is measured. CMOs often report metrics such as brand awareness, engagement rates or cost per click, while CEOs tend to focus on outcomes such as revenue growth and profitability.
When those measurement frameworks don’t align, marketing’s impact can appear less clear.
According to research, CEOs say marketing metrics clearly connect to business outcomes less than 60 per cent of the time. Bridging that gap requires marketing leaders to translate marketing activity into tangible commercial results, something that has become increasingly important in an era of tighter budgets and economic uncertainty.
For retailers navigating inflation, shifting consumer behaviour and rising acquisition costs, demonstrating this link is likely to remain critical.
Diversity progress, and stagnation
One area where the CMO role has seen significant progress is gender representation. Today, 53 per cent of Fortune 500 CMO roles are held by women, up from 41 per cent in 2020. This marks one of the few C-suite positions where women now make up the majority.
However, progress in racial and ethnic diversity has been slower. Only 12 per cent of marketing leaders come from historically underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, a figure that has remained largely unchanged in recent years.
As companies continue to invest in leadership diversity, the marketing function may yet become a more representative entry point into senior executive roles.
The future of marketing leadership
Ultimately, the data points to a marketing leadership role that is changing rather than disappearing.
In many organisations, the CMO is no longer simply responsible for campaigns and communications. Instead, marketing leaders are increasingly expected to unify customer insight, data, brand strategy and commercial performance.
That evolution is also changing how companies think about growth leadership.
Some organisations are expanding the CMO remit into broader “CMO-plus” roles that incorporate revenue, digital transformation or customer experience. Others are creating entirely new titles focused on growth or customer strategy.
But the underlying skillset remains closely tied to marketing.
Understanding customers, interpreting behavioural data and translating insight into growth opportunities are now central leadership capabilities, particularly in industries such as retail where customer expectations continue to evolve rapidly.
As a result, the future of the CMO may not lie in defending a traditional title. Instead, it may lie in expanding the influence of marketing thinking across the entire C-suite.
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