I love this chart. I freakin’ love this chart. For CMOs to acknowledge the importance of brand strategy, overtaking analytics and all other measures, is a powerful endorsement of brand work. Gartner’s study queried 432 CMOs.
I could get caught in the weeds asking questions like “How do the CMOs define brand strategy?” or “What does your brand strategy framework look like?” but I won’t. I’ll just bask in the glow.
Apparently, brand strategy was near the bottom of this list when asked in the 2019 Annual CMO Spend Survey Research, so this is quite a leap up in importance. Now, one could say the Covid-19 Pandemic is playing a role in this leap; the logic being, when marketers cut budgets and activity, strategy becomes more important — but I am going to take the win here.
Great job Gartner. Great job CMOs.
Peace.