We’re All Marketers Now
7 mins read

We’re All Marketers Now

It’s not often that a business headline captures your attention and then continues to make you think. 

“Is your entire company thinking like a marketer? It should be.” 

This simple question and answer appeared in a recent email newsletter from McKinsey, linking to a series of articles. It made me consider how attracting and respecting customers today requires commitment from an entire organization.  I also thought about how marketing’s role will continue to evolve as Artificial intelligence recognizes new customer behaviors and instant analytics point to different ways of being relevant.

The McKinsey article made a good point:

“At the end of the day, customers no longer separate marketing from the product—it is the product. They don’t separate marketing from their in-store or online experience—it is the experience. In the era of engagement, marketing is the company. … And to achieve that, everyone in an organization needs to think like a marketer.”


The Internationalist welcomes Commentaries and Points of View from the marketing industry.

This edition of COMMENTARY is by:

Deborah Malone, Founder of The Internationalist 


There’s no question that marketing’s role is more business-critical than ever.  In our post-digital age, management now understands that marketers are the individuals best able to gauge customers’ reasons for purchasing a product or service, which directly ties to creating brand value and driving revenue. When companies take a limited view of marketing by restricting its function to just advertising or communications, they do a disservice to their business. Marketing has become a broad, strategic discipline that now plays a central role in all organizations by guiding and helping to execute the most vital goals.

Interestingly, the McKinsey article cites a historic business example that underscores the broader significance of “we’re all marketers now.” It refers to the early days of the quality movement before it became embedded in the fabric of general management.

“In a memorable anecdote, one of former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca’s key hires, Hal Sperlich, arrived at the automaker in 1977 as the new vice president of product planning.

His first question: ‘Who is in charge of quality?’

‘Everybody,’ a confident executive replied.

‘But who do you hold responsible when there are problems in quality?’ Sperlich pressed.

‘Nobody.’

‘Oh, shoot,’ Sperlich thought. ‘We are in for it now.’

Marketers need to drive business forward accountably. The expectations of marketing outcomes are at an all-time high, especially from the top. 

According to a recent survey from the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) with McKinsey, CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategies are twice as likely as their peers to have greater than 5 percent annual growth

However, CEOs and their marketing officers must work together closely for any sweeping marketing initiative to succeed. Also, marketers need to participate as framers of the strategy, not only as the ones who implement it.

There is another catch. Unfortunately, according to the research, 90 percent of CEOs believe they know the benefits of marketing. However, only 50 percent of CMOs agree with their CEO’s perspective. In other words, half of CMOs have a different view of the organization’s marketing priorities. Then, consider the estimated statistic that only 10 percent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing experience.

So, to paraphrase Hal Sperlich, “Are we in for it now?”

I don’t think so.

Marketing leaders are now tasked with expanded responsibilities of extraordinary complexity and greater accountability. They must champion consumer trust, provide unparalleled brand experiences, lead data strategy, rally employees throughout the globe, support purposeful and sustainable solutions, continually demonstrate significant return on investment… and accomplish it all faster while also embracing new technologies– as the speed of innovation matters as much today as innovation itself.

Without question, the most successful marketers are the ones who determine how to serve customers better—and then advocate and communicate those ideas across the company, regardless of department or “silo.” When they align that mission with the overall business strategy and passionately convey that message to the entire organization, everyone can become marketers in the best sense of the word.

Interestingly, AI could help “humanize” this process. We all recognize that data is crucial today, and customers’ signals, intentions, actions, and feedback are everywhere. Marketers who embrace AI’s ability to interpret data at scale and then provide those insights to their organization may not only be able to “unify everyone as a marketer” but also improve their customers’ lives.  


Turning to Brand Building …

Coincidentally, McKinsey also released research in October 2024 in time for the annual ANA Masters of Marketing Conference on How the Role of CMO is Evolving based on a survey of more than 100 marketing decision-makers, including marketing chiefs, chief growth officers, and chief brand officers across North America and Europe. The majority saw their role as building strong brands and delivering growth while maximizing the effectiveness of marketing spending.

However, the research also cited how marketers are taking on more responsibilities:

Marketing leaders are expected to apply new energy to identifying growth opportunities, bring their companies’ missions to life, build immersive and connected brand experiences, link purpose to business outcomes, capitalize on new technologies, and more. At the same time, CMOs are under increasing pressure to provide results and serve as responsible stewards of marketing resources to achieve growth agendas. They’re growth leaders whose remit continues to expand, with CMOs taking on more functional areas traditionally seen as outside the purview of marketing. Such areas include generative AI (gen AI), innovation, sales, and e-commerce.

The CMO Survey also cites Barriers to Success, which include internal silos (36%), insufficient budgets for marketing activities (34%), a lack of in-house talent (32%), and incoherent strategic vision (32%). According to McKinsey, failing to address these concerns means that brands may miss out on emerging opportunities. 


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THE INTERNATIONALIST focuses on the reinvention of marketing around the globe by connecting the people and ideas in international marketing, advertising, and media through content, insights, case studies, and peer-to-peer marketer Think Tanks, Awards, and Summits- all to better serve the needs of this community. Marketer-driven, The Internationalist is now in its twenty-first year and was founded by former Ad Age and CNBC executive Deborah Malone. The Internationalist is especially proud of its Marketing Makes a World of Difference™ initiative and its long-term Global Alliance with ANA.