A survey by Marketing Week on LinkedIn found that only 12% of marketers believe their industry or team “definitely” has the level of financial skills they need.
According to a poll conducted by Marketing Week on LinkedIn, nearly seven in 10 marketers (69%) believe there is “room for improvement” in the industry's level of financial fluency.
A survey of 359 people found that more than two-thirds believe more can be done to improve financial literacy across the marketing industry and its teams. Furthermore, one in five (19%) say that lack of skills in this area is a “major problem”.
Just 12% of marketers surveyed believe their industry or team is “definitely” financially fluent.
For marketers, financial fluency is a critical skill for both advocating for and getting the most out of brand investments.
Dawn Spencer, managing director of Pilgrim's Food Masters, appeared on Marketing Week earlier this month and emphasized the importance of marketers being financially savvy.
Spencer spent the first 20 years of her career in marketing before transitioning to general management in 2022. She worked at Coca-Cola Enterprises and The Coca-Cola Company, then she became marketing director at the food and beverage company Kelly Foods, and then she became her CMO at Pilgrim's. Food master.
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Speaking about making a limited budget work, she emphasized the value of coaching your team to be financially savvy and manage “every penny.”
Financial fluency not only improves marketers' ability to manage tight budgets, but also helps them “speak the language of the boardroom.”
Speaking to Marketing Week in June, Chris Berggrave, a former AB InBev CMO turned marketing strategist and consultant at his company Vicomte, argues that finance is the language of the boardroom.
“You need to understand the language of profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, and you need to understand what NPV (net present value) does,” Berggrave said. “And last but not least, they need to understand the concept of pricing power. You won't be taken seriously in the boardroom unless you're sitting on the price list.”
Boardroom language: what to say and what to avoid
In fact, becoming more financially fluent may even help marketers become financial allies rather than adversaries.
According to a September survey from the CMO Council and KPMG, only 22% of CMOs say their partnership with the CFO is truly collaborative. Just over a quarter (26%) of marketing leaders surveyed said they were “indifferent” about the relationship with finance, and 7% were completely “hesitant” about it.
To make an impact, marketers need to think about combining customer focus with commerciality.
On the Beach CMO Zoe Harris is one of the marketers who sits on the company's board of directors. Earlier this year, she spoke on her Marketing Week about the importance of using the right language and getting the rest of your business on the same page.
“If you think you're giving a growth presentation rather than a marketing or brand presentation, it helps to use the right language and frame what you're saying in the right way,” she says. I did.
Marketing Week will be running an in-depth feature in the coming weeks about the importance of teaching marketers to become financially fluent, the specific skills needed, and the benefits.
