Marketing isn’t an isolated function; if nothing else, it helps sell things, and at its best, it’s the engine of sustainable business growth.
And yet, too often, marketing budgets are viewed as the sole responsibility of the CMO, rather than a strategic investment that should be owned by the entire board.
This narrow view is holding businesses back.
The reality is that marketing isn’t just about quick wins and short-term sales boosts – it’s about building a brand that customers trust and remember, long before they’re even thinking about buying. And if marketing is only focused on the ‘now’, it’s failing the future of the business.
So why should marketing investment be a board-level discussion? Because the stakes are too high to be left to short-term thinking.
If you’re only chasing instant results, you’re missing the largest opportunity.
Marketing operates on two timelines:
But here’s the kicker – most people aren’t in the market for your product right now.
Research suggests only around 5% of your potential customers are actively looking to buy at any given time. So if your entire marketing budget is geared towards capturing that 5%, you’re ignoring the 95% of future buyers who don’t yet know they need you.
Brand expert Mark Ritson puts it perfectly…
The problem with short-termism is that it generates a lot of revenue this year but very little profit in the future.Mark Ritson
If you don’t invest in brand building, you’re making life harder for sales down the line. This isn’t just a CMO’s problem – it’s a business-wide issue that requires a board-level commitment to long-term thinking.
If marketing is such a crucial investment, why is it so often managed with short-term goals? The answer lies, in part, with the shockingly short tenure of CMOs.
In the UK, the median CMO tenure is just 30 months – the lowest of any C-suite role. CEOs last almost twice as long on average.
This revolving door means many CMOs are focused on making a quick impact, rather than laying down long-term strategies that might only pay off after they’ve moved on.
This results in campaigns aimed at instant wins rather than sustainable brand growth. It’s no wonder many focus on eye-catching tactics designed to make a splash and boost their career prospects.
This isn’t a criticism of CMOs – it’s a systemic issue. And one that boards must address.
Could minimum tenure commitments for CMOs be a solution? Should companies prioritise long-term marketing strategies that outlive individual leadership changes?
These are board-level questions, not just marketing ones.
The short-term obsession is even more damaging in B2B markets, where buying cycles are measured in months (if not years).
In B2B, the journey from awareness to purchase is long, complex, and often involves multiple stakeholders. Yet too many businesses focus only on the bottom-of-the-funnel audience – those already in the decision-making phase – often at the expense of long-term relationship-building that is needed to win future contracts.
When marketing is only seen as a ‘sales driver’ rather than a ‘brand builder’, companies miss the chance to establish credibility before buyers start actively looking. By the time a competitor wins the deal, it’s often too late to realise where things went wrong.
Again, this is why marketing must be a board-wide responsibility – because when marketing fails, it’s not just the CMO’s problem; it’s the company’s bottom line that suffers.
At Maverick, we champion an InsideOut methodology – an approach that aligns internal culture with external brand perception.
Why does this matter? Because businesses that connect their internal strategy with their external brand are the ones that succeed long-term. They don’t just chase quarterly sales numbers – they build brands that last.
For this to work, marketing needs to be ingrained in the fabric of the business, with buy-in from the entire leadership team. This isn’t about sidelining the CMO – it’s about empowering them with the resources, time, and strategic oversight to build something that endures.
Marketing isn’t just another department. It’s the heartbeat of business growth, and it’s too important to be treated as a siloed function focused purely on the next quarter’s numbers.
If businesses want to thrive, they must break free from short-term thinking. That means:
Marketing is not an expense – it’s an investment in the future. And the whole board should be responsible for internal alignment and making sure it counts.
