If you are looking for a "brand CMO" or a "performance CMO", please stop. 
Brand vs performance is a false choice.
The best Chief Marketing officers lead marketing as a whole to drive impact.

"Brand CMO" vs "performance CMO" is a false choice.  Demand both.

If you have accepted that brand vs growth is a choice you need to make when hiring a chief marketing officer, then you're doing it wrong. It's all marketing and any good CMO show you how everything works together for impact.

​

Focused on performance?

Here's what happens. The team focuses relentlessly on growth. CAC, ACV, TCV, ARR etc... The numbers look good in the beginning. The team is working across channels, understanding what the best consumers look like and how the funnel works. They optimize media and creative to drive efficient customer acquisition. It's awesome, until it isn't. Because every single time, acquisition cost goes up. Growth slows.

Focused on brand?

Here's what happens. The team puts work into understanding the consumer and the product and the company. Data is gathered. Research converts the data into insights about awareness, image, favorability, and affinity. Teams develop positioning and integrated marketing programs to improve awareness or shift perceptions. Customers tell marketers they get it and want to buy. But sales don't always follow. Consumers don't always do what they say they will do. The old adage "actions speak louder than words" is true.

​

Marketing is strategy, action, and measuring impact.

In his book, The End of Advertising, Sergio Zyman said "The goal of advertising is to sell more stuff, to more people, more often, at higher prices.". Duh, right? But it really is that simple. What gets complicated is the "how" because there are so many options. "How" for a Chief Marketing Officer is way bigger than brand or performance. "How" is strategy, action, and measuring impact.