CMOs are from Mars, CEOs are from Venus

Brand is built to generate business. Point. But not every marketing action is designed to automatically convert. And that’s great. If a business manager, in good conscience, would never allow his sales team to only tell the customer the price and ask “are you going to buy it?” or that your street store salespeople drag pedestrians to the checkout without letting them look at the merchandise, it also doesn’t make sense to grow a company just with “buy now!” actions.

The other side is also true. Embracing all social media trends to show megalomaniac reach numbers in reports and create actions just because “it has everything to go viral” only helps to alienate business managers from the real purpose of investing in a brand. So, when the time comes – and it always comes – for everyone to come together in growth planning, marketing is left without the necessary budget and deadline to really contribute to the mission.

Despite appearing to be from different planets, CMO and CEOs can interrupt this cycle with massive investment in communication, not the one that goes to the market and costs money, but the one that costs time and goodwill: conversation and alignment between teams.

There’s no point running away. It is part of the marketing team’s responsibility to explain the objective of brand actions to managers. More than just saying what the creative theme will be, it is necessary to get everyone on the same page about where in the customer journey that investment of time, energy and money will help. In the same way that it is impossible to expect effective campaigns at the right time, when marketers are not clear, or even not included, in the construction of the business plan.

When this relationship is in tune, creativity is supported by investment to be used in a tactical and accurate way, and even the CEO will agree to do that new TikTok dance if it is clear that it is the ideal tool to overcome a chronic challenge.

*Silas Colombo is CCO and founder of MOTIM. Graduated in Journalism and with an MBA in Communication and Marketing Strategies from Cornell University, he was responsible for developing communication campaigns for brands such as Itaú, Volkswagen and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

At the accelerator, he is communications director and has produced public relations strategies for more than 200 innovation, technology and entrepreneurship brands, from startups to multinationals.