Are CMOs gaining ground in the recession?

A recent Ad Age article by John Quelch has some good news for marketing heads: Chief marketing officers are holding on to their jobs longer. According to Spencer Stuart's annual survey of CMO tenure at the 100 most advertised brands in the U.S., average time on the job has risen to 28.4 months from 26.8 months in 2007 and 23.2 months in 2006.

In this Ad Age article, Quelch lists the top four issues on which CEOs look to CMOs for guidance. Here is a summary; for details see Ad Age.
- Shifting consumer behavior: The recession has changed consumer attitudes and behaviors and the CEO needs a CMO who understands company's brands, consumers, and their comparative profitability.
- Price positioning: The economic downturn has increased customer price sensitivity. Marketers need to hit key retail price points and revamp their promotion and marketing strategies to maximize price competitiveness.
- Stretching marketing dollars: Recession demands that marketers come up with creative ways of doing more with less.
- Embracing digital: Rather than avoid online advertising, now may be the time for many companies to experiment further and allocate more of their budgets to search advertising, banner advertising or motivating user-generated content.