Marketing’s Age of Opinion Is Ending

That insight intensified my personal discomfort knowing I wasn’t fully confident on the recommendations I had been making to clients when I was in the agency business.

Now, as the head of a non-profit industry body, I have committed to making marketing a trusted and respected profession. It is my mission, it is my body of work.

But I cannot do it alone. None of us could. It requires an alliance that includes all marketers, and those that provide solutions to marketers, working together.  

Luke Skywalker didn’t start the Rebel Association. He started the Rebel Alliance.

That best captures why MMA rebranded last year. 

We marketers need to build more competency in how marketing actually works 

And within that, I believe, lies trust 

We need a codified body of knowledge. Transferable knowledge. Tested knowledge. A new commitment to scientific thinking and approaches.

Because professions do not run on vibes.

Watch for more on this later this year.

So let me close with this.

Imagine if marketing’s impact were truly predictable: if the CMO were not the person fighting to defend a budget, but a critical and recognized partner in making the business grow, enriching the fortunes of every executive at the table. And shareholders. 

And imagine if we stopped acting like a collection of opinions and started acting more like a real profession.

Imagine if trust in marketing rose because predictability in marketing rose.  

Imagine if the rest of the company got out of the way when we walked down the hall because they were in such awe of us.

That is our opportunity, everyone. That is our path.

The age of opinion is ending.

The next era belongs to those who can turn knowledge into judgment, judgment into action, action into profitable growth, as predictable profitable growth will build trust.

And back to my earlier point about the opportunity for growth. 

MMA’s estimates suggest if you execute just on what we know today, and do it before your competition—the market capitalization of your company has a 0.7 coefficient to go up 10% to maybe 20%.

The future of the profession of marketing is in your hands. That is the good news today.