What do the 2022 CEO Purpose Report findings mean for Chief Marketing Officers?

Purpose is bigger than marketing. It’s official.

The key role of “purpose” has shifted from advertising, branding and public relations, with only 23% of CEOs believing that its main function is to create advertising campaigns (down from 41% in 2021). Campaigns support purpose, not the other way around.

And almost a third of CEOs now believe that the main role of purpose is to guide sustainability activities – a leap from just 9% in 2021. These insights help to substantiate the trend we’re seeing of purpose being regarded as a mechanism for business longevity.

So what does this mean for CMOs? Charged with the growth of an organization, CMOs should be embracing purpose as the broader, enterprise-level mission around which to build brand promise and campaign development.

The focus on “values” can help to refine business strategy and boost brand reputation, ultimately contributing to monetary “value” as well – but the starting point is purpose. This shift is driven from the top down – 64% of CEOs agree that it is their responsibility to define the purpose for their organizations, with their C-suite peers becoming the primary spokespeople and enablers for their organizations on social and political issues.

Just like a puppy isn’t just for Christmas, a purpose should no longer be just for a campaign. The threshold of public opinion for exaggerated purpose claims is low, and companies that are caught out face repercussions on multiple fronts: to their brand reputation and customer loyalty, and overall, to the loss of trust.

Whether B2C or B2B, purpose is here to stay and will continue to grow in importance across any organizations’ multiple stakeholders. Marketing is not an isolated case.

Because of its significance, purpose can no longer be relegated to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives or advertising campaigns. It needs to provide a solid foundation for business strategy and activities. And organizations need to be able to measure effect.

Purpose can be closely connected to sales and growth, business indicators that are critical for CMOs, and the majority of CEOs surveyed use these metrics to measure performance against purpose. But other metrics can include brand value and reputation, employee engagement, innovation as well as a more granular look at environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and DEI metrics.

A majority of CEOs (55%) are accelerating their efforts related to corporate governance, up from 36% in the previous year. It’s an unprecedented period for CMOs to apply a longer-term lens to help shape a more sustainable future where, if a profitable business thrives, so too do their employees as well as communities.

There has never been a more established market for purpose – 83% of CEOs either have or want a purpose, and 73% of CEOs agree that purpose influences the majority of their decision-making. CMOs and other members of the C-suite will be instrumental in realizing their organization’s potential through purpose, and the marketing lens is probably the largest “window” from which to see it play out.