From Campaigns to Compass: Rethinking Marketing as Business Strategy

Why CEOs Must Reframe Marketing as a Core Growth Driver — Not a Cost Center

If your marketing is only running campaigns, you may be missing the point.

In many Indonesian boardrooms, marketing is still treated like a department that “does the ads,” “runs promotions,” or “manages social media.” Budgets are scrutinized, timelines compressed, and ROI questioned — often by the very people expecting marketing to “help drive growth.”

But what if marketing wasn’t just a set of campaigns?

What if marketing acted as a compass for business growth — anchoring strategic direction, unlocking customer insight, and guiding where and how to scale?

🔍 The Case for Marketing as Strategy

According to Harvard Business Review, companies that embed marketing into business decision-making are 31% more profitable on average. McKinsey also found that high-performing organizations treat marketing not as a function, but as a capability that drives enterprise value.

Yet in Southeast Asia — including Indonesia — many CEOs still see marketing as:

• A communication tool
• A branding accessory
• A reactive response to sales problems

This misalignment is costing companies real growth.

🚫 From Tactical Execution to Strategic Relevance

Let’s illustrate the shift.

Marketing as a compass goes beyond channels and tactics — it asks the hard questions and aligns teams on business outcomes, not vanity metrics.

What This Means in the Indonesian Context

Let’s be real.

In Indonesia, marketing budgets are rising — but so is waste. The rise of digital means more content, more tools, and more campaigns… but not necessarily more strategy.

Here’s what we see on the ground:

• Family businesses launching multiple SKUs with no unifying narrative
• Startups building marketing around product features, not customer pain points
• SOE/BUMNs still using 2010 playbooks in a 2025 economy

Without a clear compass, marketing becomes a high-spend guessing game.

🧭 CEOs Need Marketing to Ask: “Where Are We Going?”

If you’re a CEO, here are 5 strategic questions marketing should help you answer:

1. What makes our brand indispensable to our customer’s life?
2. Are we solving a meaningful pain or just adding noise?
3. Which segment is truly driving growth — and are we prioritizing them?
4. What’s our unfair advantage — and how do we scale it?
5. Is our team aligned on the brand’s purpose, story, and direction?

If marketing isn’t at that table with you, it’s time to change who’s in the room.

✋ Common Barriers — and How to Break Them

Barrier 1: “Marketing is not my thing.”
➡️ Reality: It should be. Your customer is your business. Marketing is your bridge.

Barrier 2: “My team isn’t strategic enough.”
➡️ Reality: That’s why many CEOs are turning to Fractional CMOs to embed strategic leadership without full-time overhead.

Barrier 3: “We already have a brand agency.”
➡️ Reality: Agencies execute. They don’t lead. You need someone steering the whole ship — internal and external.

✅ The CMO+ Model: Strategy. Not Just Splash.

At CMO+, we help businesses — especially scale-ups, BUMNs, and family enterprises — rethink marketing as business leadership.

We don’t start with the campaign brief. We start with the business question:

• What are you trying to grow — and why?
• Where are your real levers?
• How do we connect brand, team, and market execution?

With 25+ years of strategic marketing leadership in Indonesia (and now coaching founders, CMOs, and leadership teams), we offer Fractional CMO support that brings clarity, alignment, and direction — without needing a full-time headcount.

🧠 The Bottom Line

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.”
— David Packard, HP Co-founder

As a CEO, if you’re only approving budgets and briefs — you’re not unlocking the true power of marketing.

It’s time to move from campaigns to compass. From spend to strategy.

CMO+ exists to help you lead that shift.

📩 Interested in bringing strategic marketing clarity into your leadership agenda? Learn more at www.cmoplus.asia or drop us a message.

📚 References: HBR (2023), McKinsey Growth-Driven Marketing (2022), Nielsen SEA Consumer Report, Indonesian family business case examples anonymized for confidentiality.