CMO DNA: What don't they understand?

Chief Marketing Officers have it tough. From shorter than average C-suite tenures (28 months according to a recent survey here) to increasing pressures to impact the bottom line, for many it seems an eon since the halcyon days when marketing was large and in charge...when even the sales force reported through marketing.

So what's a CMO think they need to do today to be successful?

Here's what eMarketer is reporting from a survey:

So what?

Bottom line impact, number 1. You'd think so. Though interesting that only two-thirds think that's essential. Maybe those are the two thirds who actually have tenures longer than 28 months. 

What's most striking to me is the customer orientation number. Only one-third of marketers surveyed think that customer orientation is essential!

How can that be? Is it that they see customers as the domain of sales...or customer service? Or is it a legacy of some fantasy world (aka the 90's) when marketing beleived that it controlled what prospects and customers thought about a brand?

What we know now is that, unless you are a monopoly, customer orientation is what it's all about. You can be innovative. You can be inexpensive. But if you aren't oriented to the needs of the customer then you aren't being strategic.

Unless, of course, you beleive that a successful business can exist in a space devoid of customers.