What is a fractional CMO?

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works with your company on a part-time or project basis, providing C-suite marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. At JPJ Advisory, fractional CMO engagements typically involve 2-3 days per week of strategic marketing leadership for consumer brands.

What is an interim CMO?

An interim CMO is a seasoned marketing leader who steps in full-time on a temporary basis to fill a leadership gap, manage a transition, or lead through a critical growth period. JPJ Advisory provides interim CMO services for consumer and PE-backed brands backed by 28 years of experience at Mars, Coty, and P&G.

When should a company hire a fractional CMO?

Companies should consider a fractional CMO when they need senior marketing leadership but aren't ready for a full-time CMO hire, when they're navigating a brand repositioning or turnaround, when a PE firm acquires a consumer brand and needs experienced marketing leadership, or when growth has stalled and the team needs strategic direction.

What types of companies does JPJ Advisory work with?

JPJ Advisory works primarily with consumer brands and PE-backed portfolio companies that need experienced marketing leadership to unlock profitable growth. With 28 years of experience at Mars, Coty, and Procter & Gamble, JPJ Advisory brings deep CPG and consumer brand expertise.

What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing consultant?

A fractional CMO embeds within your team as a part-time executive, owning strategy and leading execution. A marketing consultant typically advises from the outside and delivers recommendations. JPJ Advisory operates as a true fractional or interim CMO — leading teams, setting strategy, and driving results from within the organization.

When Should a PE-Backed Brand Hire a Fractional CMO?

Apr 21

Written By Jean-Paul Jansen

The post-acquisition marketing gap

Here's a pattern that plays out across PE-backed consumer brands: the deal closes, the value creation plan is set, and the portfolio company needs to accelerate revenue growth. But there's no senior marketing leader in seat — or the existing one isn't equipped for the transformation ahead.

Recruiting a full-time CMO takes four to six months on a good timeline. That's half a year of strategic drift during the most critical phase of the investment. A fractional CMO closes that gap immediately, bringing experienced marketing leadership from day one.

Five signals it's time to bring one in

There's no CMO in seat, but growth decisions can't wait. Whether the previous marketing leader departed during the transaction or the role never existed, someone needs to set the marketing strategy and align the team. A fractional CMO steps into that leadership vacuum and gets to work within weeks, not months.

Great products, but the brand and go-to-market aren't delivering. Many PE-backed brands have strong products but underperforming positioning, fragmented demand generation, or misaligned pricing and channel strategies. A fractional CMO starts from the consumer — diagnosing how the brand, communication, and portfolio show up in the market — then rebuilds the growth system around them.

The marketing team needs senior leadership, not more headcount. Portfolio companies often have capable marketing teams that lack strategic direction. They don't need more junior hires — they need an experienced leader who can set priorities, build an operating rhythm, and raise the bar on execution.

You're heading into a major inflection point. New market entry, portfolio repositioning, channel expansion, or preparing for exit — these moments require marketing leadership that's been through them before. A fractional CMO with cross-category experience brings pattern recognition that accelerates decision-making.

You need to assess and upgrade the agency ecosystem. Most consumer brands work with multiple agencies and vendors, and the quality varies. A fractional CMO can quickly evaluate your partner landscape, bring in vetted specialists, and orchestrate everyone as one team against clear KPIs — something that typically falls through the cracks without senior marketing oversight.

Why fractional works especially well for PE

The fractional model aligns naturally with how PE operates. It's flexible — scale up to two or three days per week during intensive phases, scale down as the internal team matures. It's fast — no six-month executive search. And it's capital-efficient — you get C-suite caliber leadership without the full-time cost, preserving capital for the growth initiatives themselves.

The best fractional CMOs for PE-backed brands aren't agency people rebranding themselves. They're executives who've led marketing at scale across major consumer companies and understand both the operational rigor PE expects and the creative brand-building that drives consumer demand.

What good looks like

A strong fractional CMO engagement for a PE-backed brand typically starts with a consumer-led brand and business diagnosis, moves into a clear growth thesis with prioritized initiatives, and then shifts to hands-on execution leadership — setting up the demand engine, restructuring the agency model, and building the team's capability so the brand eventually outgrows the need for fractional support.

That's the measure of success: not perpetual dependency, but building a marketing function that can sustain growth independently.

The bottom line

If your portfolio company needs marketing leadership to drive the value creation plan and you can't afford to wait six months for a full-time hire, a fractional CMO is the fastest path to getting senior strategy and execution in place.

JP Jansen is the founder of JPJ Advisory, providing fractional and interim CMO leadership for consumer and PE-backed brands. With 28 years at Mars, Coty, and Procter & Gamble — including growing Mars Pet Nutrition from $4B to $6B and building a $700M online beauty business at Coty — he helps brands unlock profitable growth. Learn more at jpj-advisory.com

Jean-Paul Jansen