SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Propolis has published research showing that 75% of UK CEOs and senior business leaders do not believe B2B marketing drives business growth. The findings are based on a survey of 150 UK business leaders.

The study points to a gap between how senior executives view marketing’s role and the contribution marketers say they make to long-term commercial performance. While many leaders accept that marketing matters within their organisations, most stop short of treating it as a primary source of growth.

According to the research, 84% of respondents see marketing as a support function rather than a commercial growth driver. A further 77% said sales is a bigger driver of growth than marketing, while 67% believe marketing is less accountable for business results than sales.

Those views appear to shape boardroom decisions. More than a third of respondents, 35%, said marketers are being held back at board level as investment is increasingly directed towards innovation and AI.

Boardroom gap

The report describes this disconnect as a “CEO blind spot”, arguing that companies often credit growth only when revenue is recorded, while overlooking the earlier work that supports demand creation and brand development. It suggests a structural issue in how commercial impact is measured, particularly in business-to-business markets where buying cycles can be long.

In that environment, marketing activity may influence a sale long before a contract is signed or income appears in company accounts. By contrast, sales teams are more directly linked to transactions, making their contribution easier for boards to track and compare.

The findings add to a wider debate over how companies assess the return on marketing spending at a time when budgets are under pressure from new technology investment. In many organisations, spending on AI and innovation has become more prominent in strategic planning, leaving other functions under greater scrutiny.

Richard O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer at Propolis, said: “Too many CEOs say they value B2B marketing, but our research suggests they still don’t see it as a commercial growth function. If you believe marketing matters but doesn’t drive growth, it’s difficult to argue that you recognise its full contribution to the business.

“The challenge is that much of marketing’s commercial contribution happens long before revenue appears on a dashboard, making it far less visible than that of functions operating closer to the point of sale. As CEOs face growing pressure to deliver short-term results while increasing investment in AI, there is a real risk that a critical engine of sustainable growth becomes an easy target for budget cuts unless this blind spot is addressed.”

The survey focused on UK CEOs and senior leaders at B2B organisations. The results suggest the issue is not whether marketing is seen as relevant, but whether it is regarded as central to commercial outcomes in the same way as sales or product investment.

Measurement issue

The report’s central argument is that marketing’s effect is often indirect and delayed, which can make it harder to defend in board discussions shaped by near-term financial targets. Where leadership teams favour metrics closely tied to immediate revenue, longer-term work such as brand building and early-stage demand generation may carry less weight.

That can affect not only budgets but also influence at senior level. If marketing is viewed mainly as a support function, marketers may find it harder to shape strategy despite being responsible for market positioning, customer insight and pipeline development.

The research highlights a persistent tension in B2B companies between activities that can be measured quickly and those that may take months to translate into sales. For boards under pressure to show results, that distinction can have direct consequences for resource allocation.

The warning relates to SuperBike Factory, the Cheshire‑headquartered company that describes itself as Europe’s largest retailer of used motorbikes.

It has built a network of six large “destination” showrooms across the UK – including a new Milton Keynes branch marketed at riders from Oxfordshire.

Specialist motorcycling website Visordown reported that SuperBike Factory has filed a Notice of Intention (NOI) to appoint administrators and is on the “brink of administration”.

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This is a formal step which gives the business short‑term court protection from creditor action while it explores options such as new investment, a sale or restructuring.

An NOI does not mean the firm has gone into administration at this stage, but it is widely seen as a sign that the company is under significant financial pressure and could yet tip into insolvency if a rescue can’t be agreed.

According to its latest filed accounts for 2024, reported by outlets including GB News and RideApart, SuperBike Factory generated turnover of around £83m.

This saw a modest increase on the previous year’s revenues, reflecting strong demand for used bikes in the cost‑of‑living crisis.

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Over the past few years it has expanded rapidly from its original Macclesfield base, opening sites at Donington Park, Bradford and Bristol before adding a Milton Keynes showroom.

This serves customers from Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.

That Milton Keynes site, at Granby Trade Park in Bletchley, is promoted as being “easily accessible” for Oxfordshire riders looking for a destination dealership within a realistic ride or drive of Oxford, Banbury and Bicester.

Industry commentators say any administration would be a major shock for the UK motorcycle trade, given SuperBike Factory’s size and visibility, but stress that the NOI filing means the business still has a window to secure backing and keep its showrooms trading.

Research by PMC and Retail Economics found that seven in 10 direct-to-consumer brands have yet to fully integrate their core systems. More than half of retailers also linked fragmented systems to weaker margins and a poorer customer experience.

The survey of more than 100 senior retail and brand leaders examined progress towards unified commerce across systems including enterprise resource planning, point of sale, customer relationship management and order management.

Among direct-to-consumer brands, 70% said their core systems were not yet fully integrated, a gap the researchers said can lead to siloed operations and slower decision-making. Omnichannel retailers appeared slightly further ahead, with 62% saying they were already on the path to fully integrating the main systems in their technology estates.

The findings point to both commercial and operational pressure. Some 56% of retailers said fragmented systems were affecting profitability and customer experience, while 54% said operational effectiveness had been compromised.

Operational strain

The research suggests many retailers are still struggling to match their unified commerce ambitions with the practical work of connecting legacy and newer systems. That matters as retail groups face growing demands to manage stock, orders, marketing and customer data across stores, websites and other sales channels.

Richard Lim, Chief Executive Officer of Retail Economics, said the challenge is likely to deepen as the retail environment becomes more complex. Customer journeys are becoming “infinitely more complex”, he said, shaped by new channels, resale formats and the spread of artificial intelligence.

That rising complexity is likely to increase the burden on retailers that have not addressed gaps in how their systems exchange and use data. Without better integration, the report argues, businesses risk slower responses to changes in demand and less visibility across operations.

Potential gains

Retailers that had made more progress in unifying their technology stacks reported a range of benefits. Some 58% said centralised data flows led to faster decision-making, 45% reported significant cost savings and 48% said they had seen measurable revenue growth.

Those figures suggest the issue extends beyond information technology teams to finance, trading and customer service functions. Better-connected systems can affect how quickly a retailer updates pricing, manages fulfilment, responds to inventory issues and tracks customer activity across channels.

Rich Lowe, Chief Executive Officer of PMC, said businesses that modernise integration can make better use of their existing technology. “Retailers using modern integration technologies are able to unlock far greater value from their core systems, creating a continuous flow of data that improves visibility, streamlines operations and enables faster decision-making,” he said.

He contrasted that with older approaches to system integration. “Yet where legacy approaches persist, they create unnecessary complexity and innovation drag,” Lowe said.

Margin pressure

The findings come as retailers continue to look for ways to protect margins while maintaining service levels and keeping pace with changing customer expectations. Fragmented systems can add costs through manual workarounds, duplicated processes and delayed access to information, all of which can affect performance.

For direct-to-consumer brands in particular, the data points to a significant gap between growth ambitions and operational readiness. Many rely on rapid responses to customer demand and clear oversight of fulfilment, returns and marketing performance, which become harder to maintain when systems are poorly connected.

Omnichannel retailers may be slightly more advanced, but the figures indicate that many are still in transition rather than at a completed stage. That leaves a large share exposed to the risks identified by the survey, even if integration work has already begun.

Lowe said retailers need to simplify system complexity to improve performance. “By unifying data through clean, connected and modern systems architecture, retailers can start to untangle that complexity to unlock growth,” he said. “And, as retailers prepare for Peak Trading, agility becomes even more critical; brands need the interoperability to act fast, stay in control and capitalise on revenue opportunities.”