Marketing power and CMO power: could market orientation break the link? An exploratory case study

The commonly accepted assumption of a need for a market orientation for companies to be profitable led many authors to suggest an increase marketing power in strategic decision making. To achieve an enhanced marketing power, they encourage a growing power of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs). In reality, while companies are becoming more and more market oriented, CMOs seem not to be increasing their power. This apparently controversial situation has generated a vivid debate in the marketing community aimed at understanding the phenomenon. We try to contribute to the debate by arguing that the correlation between marketing power and CMO power may be problematic in a market-oriented strategic paradigm. To do that we show the evidence of a longitudinal case study in a company shifting from product centricity to market orientation, observing that it has experienced a noticeable increase of marketing power without a significant increase of CMO power. The case suggested implications for practitioners and academicians alike.