Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Michael Lang

A seasoned marketing executive with proven performance, Michael drives successful marketing and sales programs in both B2B and B2C environments. With branding, digital marketing, and product marketing expertise, he works to consistently analyze situations, establish clear strategies, introduce innovative ideas, and win support for change leading to revenue growth and bottom-line performance improvements. Applying international senior leadership experience, he leads cross-functional teams to drive innovation, increase market share, identify cost savings, and boost efficiency.

The Contrarian Brand Play: Why Right Now Is the Best Time to Invest in Brand

Fri, Sep 18, 2026 | Posted by Doug Bell

Executive Takeaways

Most companies are cutting brand spend to fund rising paid acquisition costs. That is the wrong response.
Brand awareness now drives AI citations, and AI citations drive Day One shortlist inclusion.
Google's redesign of Search makes brand recognition more important; AI systems favor brands users already know.
The companies investing in brand while competitors pull back are building advantages at lower cost.

Part 4 of our four-part series on the evolving AI search landscape and what B2B leaders need to know to stay competitive.

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What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business

Thu, Jul 9, 2026 — Executive Takeaways Marketing is a core enterprise capability, not a support function, and deserves the same CEO-level engagement as Finance and Operations. Without a unifying system, individually reasonable decisions accumulate into random acts of marketing. Modern tools make execution faster, but they don't create strategic clarity, so the gap between activity and alignment keeps widening. CEOs can't delegate marketing entirely. Leading it means ensuring insight, strategy, and execution stay connected. This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.

Marketing Leadership for CEOs: An Executive Guide to Growth

Mon, May 4, 2026 — Executive Takeaways At a certain scale, Marketing stops being a support function and becomes the company's growth system. Everyone has opinions about marketing, which means it rarely gets the disciplined oversight it actually requires. The CEO is uniquely positioned to set clear intent and hold the function accountable. As a connected system, Marketing drives alignment and focus. This blog is part of Chief Outsiders’ Marketing Leadership for CEOs series, an ongoing examination of the critical dimensions of Marketing (the capital “M” is intentional, as you’ll see) that every CEO needs to understand.

Growth Insights for CEOs

Michael Lang

Recent Posts

The Contrarian Brand Play: Why Right Now Is the Best Time to Invest in Brand

Recent Posts

What Is Marketing, Really? Why Founders and CEOs Must Lead the Most Misunderstood Function in the Business

Marketing Leadership for CEOs: An Executive Guide to Growth

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