Doing Marketing vs. Being a Great Marketer | Bennie Johnson, AMA

Full transcript

CMOs are " really good at the M part," says Bennie Johnson, the CEO of the American Marketing Association. "We're really good at the marketing part. We struggle with the 'Chief' and the 'Officer.'"

Why is that? Some possible reasons include the lack of professional certification for great marketers, the short tenures CMOs often have before moving on to the next job, or the fact that — according to the Marketing + Media Alliance's research —  30 percent of marketing capabilities sit outside the role of CMO.

"We need to take a full push that we are unapologetically leading the business," Bennie says. "An organization's marketers are driving growth. We don't get credit for the money, but we get credit for the expense."

Today on Building Better CMOs, Bennie and Greg talk about bridging research and practice through executive–academic collaboration, emerging trends from the AMA's own research, and why Bennie believes "adjectives matter" when you talk about marketing. Plus: Why you are never the target audience.

00:00 Introduction

03:47 Inside the AMA's Big Tent

08:22 Future Trends in Marketing

10:58 Portfolio Careers and Fractional CMOs

22:07 Career Advice and Collecting Art

29:20 You Are Not the Target Audience

31:25 Where Academic Research Meets Practice