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Denise
Dahlhoff
Director of Marketing & Communications Research at The Conference Board
about
Denise Dahlhoff
Denise Dahlhoff serves as the Director of Marketing & Communications Research at The Conference Board, where she leads research initiatives on marketing, communications, and consumer topics through quantitative and qualitative research. She also holds a position as Senior Fellow at The Wharton School's Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies. With a focus on data-driven insights, Denise has specialized on analyzing the evolving role of Chief Marketing and Chief Communications Officers and these executives’ collaboration with the CEO and the organization, consumer trends, and companies’ response to social and political issues, among other topics.
How has the landscape of marketing performance measurement evolved, and what are the key challenges facing CMOs today?
The marketing function has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with a clear shift towards short-term revenue generation and quantifiable outcomes. In our research, we found that 77% of CMOs are now using quantified metrics, both financial ones but also customer satisfaction, click-through rates, etc. Expressing marketing’s impact in financial terms represents a major departure from the past when marketing's significance was often expressed by budget size and team headcount. Now marketing-driven growth can be considered a new “status symbol” for marketers. However, this evolution brings its own challenges. Digital transformation has been both a blessing and a curse—while we have more data available than ever before, the expectations for proving marketing's impact have grown exponentially. Attribution remains a major challenge, and we're often data-rich but insights-poor. One CMO I spoke with shared a pragmatic approach: don't chase perfection in attribution modeling. Instead, develop a simplified model that can be clearly explained to the executive team while continuously working on improvements. This is particularly crucial in the B2B space, where studies suggest that around 80% of purchasing decisions are made before potential customers even make contact with a company, making attribution even more complex. While AI presents potential solutions for improving attribution modeling, certain aspects of measurement will always remain challenging, especially when considering factors like data privacy and the impact of long-term relationships in B2B contexts.
What specific metrics do CEOs expect from their marketing teams, and how are CMOs meeting these expectations?
CEOs, alongside CFOs, approach marketing investments like any other business investment—they want to see clear returns and financial outcomes. The primary metrics that marketers are using include financial outcomes, demand generation, conversion rates, customer experience metrics, and brand performance indicators. However, there's a crucial gap in many organizations: only about half of companies have agreement between the CEO, CFO, and CMO on the top three metrics that marketing should provide. This misalignment can create significant challenges in demonstrating marketing's value to the organization. Moreover, while CEOs understand the need for long-term brand investment, they still expect to see some form of ROI estimation or scenario planning for marketing investments. When it comes to brand building, one CEO explained to me that while they acknowledge the long-term nature of such investments, they still expect marketers to provide their best estimates or scenario analyses to help evaluate potential returns, even if those returns might be years away. This balance between short-term returns and long-term value creation remains one of the most challenging aspects of marketing. The shift towards more quantifiable outcome metrics represents a significant evolution in how marketing demonstrates its value to the organization, moving beyond traditional measures of budget and team size to actual performance indicators.
How satisfied are organizations with their current performance measurement systems, and what improvements are they seeking?
Our research revealed that just over half of chief marketers are satisfied with their current performance measurement systems. However, what's particularly interesting is that regardless of their current satisfaction levels, almost everyone wants to improve their systems. When asked about potential investments, attribution models emerged as the top priority, followed by data quality improvements, CRM system enhancements, dashboard development, and AI tools. CEOs are actually showing even more eagerness than CMOs to invest in performance measurement systems, recognizing their crucial role in business decision-making. This focus on improvement extends beyond marketing to other departments, with communications teams, for instance, prioritizing different aspects such as dashboard development and staff training on measurement practices. Marketing's advanced experience with digital analytics and measurement systems positions them well to serve as internal consultants to other departments seeking to improve their own measurement capabilities. The contrast between marketing and communications functions is particularly noteworthy, as marketers have generally developed more sophisticated measurement approaches due to their longer history with digital analytics and performance tracking.
How can marketing teams better manage the tension between short-term revenue pressure and long-term brand building?
The solution lies in education and communication. With only 10% of Fortune 250 CEOs having a marketing background, and similarly low representation on boards, there's often a fundamental misunderstanding of marketing's complexity. This knowledge gap contributes to the relatively shorter tenure of CMOs, currently averaging 4.2 years compared to 4.7 years for other C-level executives. The key is to educate stakeholders at all levels—from the CEO, senior executives and board to colleagues and investors—about how marketing works. Even when focusing on short-term revenue generation, it's crucial to communicate about current and planned marketing activities to keep leadership updated and set realistic expectations for when results might materialize. Marketing teams need to be transparent about their initiatives, objectives, and anticipated timelines, while maintaining a balance between immediate results and long-term brand building. One CMO I talked with noted how their CEO gained a much deeper appreciation for marketing's complexity and challenges after temporarily filling the CMO role during a transition period. This experience highlights how a greater understanding of marketing at the executive level can lead to more realistic expectations and better alignment between marketing objectives and overall business goals. The challenge of not understanding marketing well extends beyond the C-suite, as marketing is often viewed as a "black box" by other departments, making it essential for marketing leaders to consistently demonstrate value and educate their colleagues about both short-term impacts and long-term strategic initiatives. This education process needs to be ongoing and evolve as marketing's role continues to expand, with new responsibilities being added while existing ones remain just as crucial.
about
The Conference Board
The Conference Board is a membership-driven, global, non-profit business research organization that has been delivering trusted insights for over a century. As an independent, non-partisan organization, it provides unbiased research, economic forecasts, and actionable intelligence on critical business issues to help members improve their performance and to better serve society. The organization is particularly renowned for its influential economic indicators, including the Consumer Confidence Index and Leading Economic Indicators, as well as thought leadership in marketing & communications, human capital, ESG, and public policy, helping senior executives navigate complex business challenges and make informed decisions.
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