Study Says: The Fastest-Growing Companies Treat Marketing as a Growth Lever

A recent study from McKinsey & Company surveyed more than 100 CEOs, CMOs, and senior growth leaders across industries. The headline finding:

Companies grow twice as fast when the CEO treats marketing as a core part of the growth strategy.

Twice as fast.

Not because of branding.
Not because of advertising.
Not because of creative awards.

Because the CEO views marketing as a growth engine, not a support function.

The Problem: “Marketing Doesn’t Work.”

I hear this from CEOs all the time:

“Marketing doesn’t work.”

When I dig deeper, it becomes clear why:

They never defined what “working” even means.

No revenue target tied to marketing
No clear target audiences
No aligned message
No measurement beyond vanity metrics (likes, clicks, opens)

So they try more tactics. More campaigns. More volume.

It all leads to stalled growth and goes something like this:

Random Activity — someone yells “we need more leads”
Quick Fix Thinking — throw money at a campaign, a new agency, a new software tool
Zero Insight — no customer listening, no segmentation, no clarity
Disappointment — “Marketing doesn’t work”
Back to Step 1

Marketing doesn’t fail because it can’t work. It fails because no one defined the outcome.

High-growth CEOs don’t let that happen.

Growth Starts With Insight, Not Tactics

When we help companies grow 20% or more within two years, we start with one discipline:

Know the customer better than anyone else.

Voice of Customer research
Targeting and segmentation rooted in data, not assumptions
Competitive intelligence so we understand the playing field

Insight eliminates guessing. Insight informs strategy. Insight tells us who to talk to, what to say, and how to reach them. Without insight? Branding and advertising are just noise.

Story Drives Sales (Outside and Inside the Organization)

Insight informs the story.The story isn’t a tagline.The story is:

What you stand for
Why you exist
How you solve a real problem better than anyone else

Externally, story drives differentiation and sales. Internally, story drives culture and behavior.

This is where most companies miss opportunities — they market to customers way more than they do to their own people.

Half of marketing is internal.

Your people deliver the customer experience. Your people build or ruin momentum. Your people either reinforce the message or dilute it.

When you communicate with intention inside the organization — what we call B2E (Business-to-Employee) Marketing — three things happen:

Culture gets defined instead of assumed.
People repeat the same story, with the same language, the same purpose.
Behaviors shift — not because HR said so, but because the story matters to them.

Culture isn’t a poster or a kickoff speech. Culture is what people do when no one is watching. Marketing shapes that when it’s done right.

When employees believe the story, they execute the strategy. When they don’t, no amount of branding fixes the gap.

Sales Storytelling: Know the Messenger Too

The best CEOs understand that every salesperson is a storyteller, and not every storyteller communicates the same way. This is where data about people matters.

Use tools like Predictive Index to understand each salesperson:

How they process information
How they communicate
How they influence

Then tailor the story to match how they naturally sell. One message. Multiple delivery styles. That’s not touchy-feely psychology. That’s revenue optimization.

Activation Makes It Real

After insight and story comes activation:

Lead generation with actual qualification
Outreach sequences that stick
Content that ties back to the growth strategy
Measurement that informs next moves

Activation is where growth shows up. Not in ads. Not in campaigns. Not in impressions.

In revenue.

Ask Yourself (CEO test)

If you want to know whether marketing is strategic or supportive inside your organization, answer these:

Does marketing sit at the strategy table or get brought in to “execute” after decisions are made?
Are we measuring how marketing influences revenue — not pretending buyers move in a straight line?
Does Sales use a story that wins business and does culture have a story that shapes behaviors — both aligned to our growth strategy?
Do we truly know our customers — based on insight, not anecdotes?

If the answer is no to any of these, marketing is support…and that’s why it “doesn’t work.”

The Study Proved What Growth Leaders Already Know

Companies grow faster when:

CEOs treat marketing as a core growth driver
Insight informs decisions
Story builds alignment internally and externally
Sales storytelling matches each individual’s style
Activation focuses on revenue

Growth isn’t an accident. Growth is a decision. If you want marketing to stop being a cost center and start being a growth driver, it starts with:

Insight → Story → Activation

No guesswork.
No chasing tactics.
Just clarity and momentum.

If you want to talk through how that applies to your company, reach out.
No fluff.
No buzzwords.
Just clarity that drives growth.