The Wallet Allocation Rule

Chapter 1It's “Oh My God!” Bad

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.¹

—David Packard, cofounder and past chairman, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Hewlett-Packard

• “Marketing measures ROI [return on investment] in terms of marketing, such as customer satisfaction and brand value instead of the most relevant relationship, the one between spending and the gross profit generated from these investments…brand value! What in God's name is this anyway? It's not as if our shareholders care.” (CEO of a Spanish telecommunications firm)
• “There is a disconnect between our overall strategy and what marketing understands to be our customers.” (CEO of an Austrian retailer)
• “Marketers are, simply put, often disconnected from the financial realities of the business.” (CEO of a German financial institution)
• “Marketers make decisions based upon gut feelings rather than a solid ROI analysis.” (CEO of a U.S. professional services firm)²

CEOs around the world have stopped trusting their chief marketing officers (CMOs). Our research proves it.³ The findings are sobering. The majority of CEOs can't bring themselves to say that marketing is strategically relevant.⁴ Oh my God!

This is a major problem. Marketing's job is to bring the voice of the customer to the company. Customers are the only reason companies exist, and marketing is charged with overseeing the customer experience. In fact, 90 percent of CMOs are personally responsible for the overall customer ...