A chief marketing officer (CMO) or marketing director is a corporate executive responsible for marketing activities in an organization. The CMO leads brand management, marketing communications (including advertising, promotions and public relations), market research, sales management, product development, distribution channel management, pricing, and customer service.
The CMO is a member of the C-suite and typically reports to the Chief Executive Officer. A number of Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Directors, and other senior marketing managers responsible for various parts of the marketing strategy may report directly to the CMO.
The day-to-day tasks are often categorically different from one another, due to the fluid nature of the CMO's skill set: language is needed to stitch together all aspects of the company. Thus, in a given day the CMO completes tasks that fall into many different categories:
The CMO must quickly react to changing circumstances in the firm, and must shape the company's understanding of a particular product, sales strategy, or marketing idea. Each of these products comes from a different department, so the CMO must be a nexus of information: it is a highly receptive role, with involvement in departments such as production, information technology, corporate communications, documentation, public relations, law, human resources, and finance.