Marketing Logics, Ambidexterity and Influence

The duties of companies' chief marketing officers (CMOs) seem incompatible. They are expected to ensure that their company's market assets are properly exploited and recorded, while simultaneously enacting a proactive role in the company's business development. This study shows that about one in four CMOs have taken on this challenge, or adopted a marketing logic which could be referred to as ambidextrous. Furthermore, the study shows that this logic exerts a stronger impact on marketing's influence, compared to logics related to assuring brand consistency and measuring the performance of marketing processes. Three other ways to enact marketing management were also revealed, namely: an innovation; a communication; and a supporting marketing logic. This leads us to conclude that the influence of companies' marketing functions show up a heterogeneous picture within which the marketing logics of CMOs appear to be setting the tone.