PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to design a comprehensive responsibilities inventory for today's marketing managers, from which it develops factual inferences for the role of marketing in corporations.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis on online job announcements is used to define the role inventory of the marketing manager.FindingsThe findings reveal that marketing managers are responsible for six role dimensions in the organization. The marketing manager's assigned roles are for the management of promotion‐related activities of the company, rather than for managing other marketing mix elements. Communicational and relational (internal and external) role clusters are the most frequently addressed of marketing managers' responsibilities. Knowledge development and injection of market and marketing knowledge into the company's value network is another of the major role dimensions. Increasing financial pressures on companies mean that the outcomes of marketing actions must be measurable, so developing and reporting performance analysis and financial metrics for marketing activities has become an important part of the manager's agenda.Originality/valueThe paper is the first attempt to develop a role inventory for the marketing manager that embraces proofs, signals, and insights from the practice.