Many marketers think they're visionaries, but in reality most of them are something less than that, according to a new study by the Association of National Advertisers.
The study, The State
of Marketing Survey: The Shift (conducted in partnership with Prophet), queried 150 marketers from director level to chief marketing officer. According to the results, more than two-thirds of those
surveyed (69%) indicated they felt they were a "Leader" or "Visionary" (the top two levels of professional development, according to the survey).
However, nearly half (46%) showed through
behavioral indications that they were acting more like "Tacticians" or "Facilitators" (the two lower stages of development).
Of the 150 executives surveyed, 47 of them were identified as
"Visionaries" in the study. Those marketers were more likely to be leading strategic dialogue (89% vs. 11%), and more likely to be leading discussions about reinventing the overall business model (65%
vs. 21%).
In addition, these Visionaries were more likely to collaborate with financial and operations departments with their companies, as well as the top executives. According to the study,
73% of these visionary marketers collaborated with other business units, 60% collaborated with the CEO or COO of their company and 31% collaborated with the CFO.
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"Marketers should strive to
achieve Visionary status," said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA, in a statement. "However, it is imperative that the company identify and overcome obstacles impeding progress to find new and
better ways to reach personal growth aspirations."
A majority (60%) of marketers said their business' approach to marketing needed to change if the function were to shift to a higher, more
visionary level, and a quarter cited their own teams or departments as ripe for change.
Among the barriers to achieving these changes were: cultural inertia (22%); budgetary restrictions (17%)
and executive leadership resistance (16%).
The ANA did not return calls by press time.