A False Choice   

It’s a strange contradiction. Today we can measure the compound impact of brand and demand with more precision than ever. Yet many companies are structurally moving in the opposite direction – splitting teams, narrowing scopes and privileging last-click metrics over strategic growth levers.

The debate over brand versus growth has evolved, with impact seen as mutually reinforcing across the full customer lifecycle. According to Insight Partners’ 2025 B2B Pipeline Generation survey, 76% of leaders indicate strong brand awareness positively impacts pipeline, behind only AI as a growth driver. Conversely, WARC’s 2025 report The Multiplier Effect shows that overinvesting in performance alone depresses revenue from advertising by 20-50%. The multiplier is yielded by a more balanced approach, which varies by category, purchase frequency and brand size according to Binet & Field. 

But even as brand-growth interdependency deepens, the functions are moving into separate organizations. CMOs now report to CPOs or CROs, and new marketing titles are popping up around growth, commercial go-to-market and brand excellence, placing them throughout around a company. True, sophisticated and specialized skills require that marketers declare a major and innovation stage or PE-backed companies must index on speed. So the risk isn’t the split itself; it’s when no one is accountable for the whole system. 

Jason Lemkin of SaaStr parses Pave’s recent research into CMO reporting and visualizes it in two parallel marketing organizations. 

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Savvy hybrid marketing leaders will bridge the significant c-suite and operational gaps left by the new model. Here are the things you need to do successfully to avoid the associated breakdowns:

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• Activating brand strategy: Shining vision and motivational north star don’t make it out of town halls and wall art into daily market-facing activities at large 

• Streamlining brand portfolio architecture: New products and company acquisitions add portfolio complexity over time, making it harder for buyers to navigate the offer

• Providing sales enablement: Without compelling storytelling that connects to focused sales plays, sellers revert to generic speeds and feeds over unique needs and targeted insights

• Generating demand: Customer engagement takes a hit when inbound marketing, outbound xDRs, sales EAs and customer success don’t rally around unified data, experience and value

• Delivering efficient growth: Brand, demand and expand team impact suffers at a time when ROI per FTE is emerging as the definitive metric in many industries

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The good news? The two sides share mutual respect. 

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Good revenue leaders know what good brand does for them. They need it, rely on it, and will be the first to tell you when their sellers in the trenches aren’t getting sufficient aircover to prewarm the 95% of the market that isn't ready to buy today. If you're not rightly known, you spend too much money on performance marketing. And, too much time in pipeline development earning the right to progress a buyer discussion. Differentiation at any level – especially above individual products or discussions of the day – will have already established why you're better and premium to competitors.

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Equally, good brand leaders understand how to maximize for growth and market dynamics. Brand strategy and narrative will be enduring and relevant; activation compelling and sagely calibrated throughout the buyer journey, with a high degree of alignment via GTM strategy. It is a constant endeavour at all levels that pays off in years as well as quarters.

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Here’s the playbook to make sure your brand and growth efforts remain aligned:

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• Brand building starts with the CEO and is developed and sustained with full participation of the entire leadership aligned around an integrated operating system and shared metrics

• CFO business cases for brand move beyond balance sheet good will to include speed-to-market, CLV/CAC, contribution margin, pipeline velocity, buyer win rates, product mix (CROs, CPOs)

• Strategic ecosystem power from brand provides beneficial tiering and joint value propositions to alliance leaders for Partner/Channel platforms and co-marketing

• CHROs are supported in employer brand and talent attraction with branding programs contributing centrally to employee recognition and culture

• GTM (product-marketing-sales-customer success) alignment unifies motions around M&A, transformation, market segmentation, pricing, product launches, sales enablement, customer voice

• The opportunity cost of failing to activate brand top/down and inform it bottoms/up is chaos. Make this fully visible and frame your asks for budget and governance authority accordingly

 

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