The CMO Credibility & Confidence Study
Marketing has never been more visible, or more scrutinised. Yet what founders and CEOs actually expect from marketing, and what makes marketing leaders confident in the boardroom, is rarely studied.
I’m exploring one question: what makes a founder or CEO trust marketing, and how does that compare with how confident marketing leaders feel? I’m speaking with founders, CEOs, marketing leaders and a small number of investors.
What I am exploring
The question has three parts:
- What founders and CEOs expect from marketing, and how they judge it
- How confident marketing leaders feel at board level, and where that confidence comes from
- What helps marketing earn trust at the top table
The goal is practical insight, not theory for its own sake. It is useful to marketing leaders, to CEOs building leadership teams, and to investors assessing marketing maturity in portfolio companies.
How it works
I hold short conversations and collect brief written answers from people who prefer to reply by email. I use thematic analysis, the method from my MSc, to find patterns in what people say.
This is a small, qualitative study, so I will report themes rather than statistics, and I will say clearly what it can and cannot show. Nobody is named without their permission. I will publish the first findings here.
Take part
If you are a founder, CEO, investor or senior marketing leader and would like to contribute, I would welcome a conversation. Your perspective will help build a clearer picture of what good looks like.