Does the Chief Marketing Officer Role Need an Update?

In recent years, the chief marketing officer (CMO) job has grown tremendously in breadth and depth. Digital capabilities have significantly changed how marketing leaders can achieve growth—creating a bigger daily executional workload and, with increasingly available data, higher expectations for optimizing strategy. Data and digital tech, including AI, are now commonly used to help marketers increase sales by retaining and acquiring customers through unique products and services, enhanced brand awareness, excellent customer experience, mass customization, and microtargeting at scale.

While the CMO title remains well recognized and respected—and the role’s objective of growing the business with existing and new customers has remained the same—its expanded responsibilities and a lack of shared understanding of the marketing function raise the question of whether the title is outdated. In fact, some companies have already unbundled the CMO position into more specialized roles, such as chief digital officer, chief customer experience officer, chief brand officer, chief product officer, and chief revenue officer.

Would a “reset” of the CMO title—a rebranding of sorts—benefit marketing leaders and their ability to impact their companies’ business? There are pros and cons to renaming and unbundling the role, and there isn’t a single solution. Rather, companies should consider certain principles in titling their marketing leaders.

The chief marketer’s role has evolved, and the scope of the marketing function can be unclear.

There are several reasons to argue for a change of the CMO title, based on our multimethod research at the Conference Board, which included interviews with CMOs and CEOs from various industries and executive recruiters, a survey of and roundtable with CMOs, and a review of third-party publications.

The CMO role has evolved a lot over time. Today, CEOs’ top priorities for their CMOs are increasingly focused on driving the top line. Activities like demand generation, customer acquisition, and growth rank ahead of customer experience, talent development, and brand building, according to our research. Digital tech—including AI, platforms, and data—is supporting these marketing priorities but requires deeper expertise in a range of specialized areas including strategy, tech, finance, and analytics.

A new title—or multiple specialized ones—can signal updated strategic priorities and approaches, also addressing marketing’s marketing problem: It’s often not well understood internally and can appear like a black box. This can hinder marketing leaders’ collaboration with C-suite colleagues, other departments, and even external partners; their strategic influence; and ultimately their business impact. This might also explain CMOs’ shorter tenure of 4.2 years in 2023 among Fortune 500 companies, as compared to 4.6 years for their C-suite colleagues.

Also, for some, the marketing label carries traditional associations: “Marketing as a name is somewhat dated,” one marketing leader remarked in our research.

The traditional CMO title still dominates, but new C-level positions have emerged.

To be sure, the CMO title remains prevalent, increasing 54% between 2020 and 2023. But specialized customer- and marketing-related titles grew even more during that time, complementing or replacing the CMO title, with or without a direct reporting relationship to the CEO.

This suggests that marketing leadership titles are in a state of change. The chief product officer title, for example, grew 80%. Similarly, titles related to operations and financial outcomes grew rapidly, including chief commercial officer by 78%, chief sales officer by 75%, and chief revenue officer—a title that originated in Silicon Valley, as an executive recruiter explained to me, to complement tech-focused founders/CEOs with a commercial partner—by 73%.

Chief growth officer—which generally focuses on growth mechanisms beyond marketing, such as corporate innovation, operations, strategy, tech, culture, and finance—is another CMO-adjacent role that has emerged.

As of June 2023, 36% of Fortune 500 companies used the traditional CMO title for their head of marketing. A slightly smaller percentage, 31%, had an officer with “marketing” in their title, and 13% had “CMO+” titles, which cover additional functions such as communications. While 84% of business-to-consumer Fortune 500 companies had a CMO, only 48% did in business-to-business. In financial services and insurance, for example, 91% did, versus only 21% in mining and energy companies.

Arguments for keeping the CMO title

Supporters of the traditional CMO title argue that it remains better recognized than any alternative label. It also suggests a more comprehensive leadership position that holistically shapes how to market to customers. Moreover, it’s an aspirational title for marketers and thus a career goal, as marketing leaders told us at one of our roundtables.

It’s also not as easy to find a new universal title for the head of marketing. Two options that emerged in our research are:

Chief customer officer

Given the aforementioned issues with the traditional CMO title, several marketing leaders with whom we spoke suggested chief customer officer as a suitable alternative, because it centers on marketing’s most important stakeholder. Chief customer officer also signals a broader role, encompassing all customer-related responsibilities, including sales.

“CMO+” titles

Combined titles such as chief marketing & strategy officer, chief marketing & experience officer, chief marketing & digital officer, and chief marketing & communications officer can communicate the marketing leader’s strategic priorities and expanded scope.

Marketing leaders in our research said that a broader title suits the increasing integration of marketing with functions such as sales and communications. Listing multiple areas in the title could also appeal to candidates for the head of marketing role.

What to consider when titling a head of marketing

As CEOs and boards consider their organizational needs when it comes to leading the marketing function and making it appealing to (potential) heads of marketing, our research suggests they should consider the following:

There is no one-fits-all title.

The scope of the marketing leader’s job varies not just by industry or company size but also by company. Therefore, the title should be based on the organization’s specific needs and context. For some companies, the traditional CMO title still fits best, while other enterprises may benefit from more specialized titles that reflect strategic priorities.

Have a single C-level executive responsible for marketing and growth—or clearly name and define different marketing-related roles.

One study finds that 67% of CEOs have two or more marketing-related roles reporting to them, which can impact the CEO’s workload and, ultimately, business performance. Multiple marketing-related titles can lead to blurred boundaries between roles, causing confusion and requiring greater coordination. However, if the workload, expertise required, or strategic emphasis of certain marketing tasks calls for multiple roles, explain their scope clearly to the entire organization.

Make the title descriptive and easy to understand with the areas of responsibilities indicated in the title.

A chief customer officer title could be easier for collaborators to understand—but don’t let it suggest that the customer is just one person’s or team’s responsibility rather than a company-wide one. As a CMO said in our research: “We need a customer-first mindset. No one team can own the customer.” A CMO+ title allows for explicitly stating multiple responsibilities in the title, describing the role better.

Make the top marketer’s title a recruiting tool.

While it’s not every CMO’s goal, becoming CEO has become more achievable given CMOs’ expanded qualifications—from customer, growth, and financial orientation to digital capabilities and cross-company collaboration. Therefore, the job’s scope—and title—can be a career steppingstone, including for more specialized titles, which could attract candidates who want to build expertise in certain marketing areas.

Beyond the marketing leader’s title and all the “hard” skills they need these days, relationship building and collaboration are key to driving strategic initiatives and contributing to the organization’s success. And that starts by explaining to the entire organization what marketing does and can do—together.

Copyright 2025 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate.

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