• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 8, 2023

Asked what issues keep them up most at night, CMOs and marketing managers cited mostly bottom line considerations, especially fretting over the returns on their marketing investments, volatile economic signals, corporate profits, and budget cuts, although consumer expectations also continue to cause them to lose some sleep, according to the 2023 edition of a periodic survey by Brand Keys.

This year's study -- which surveyed 522 CMOs and marketing managers last month -- found that integrating and managing AI tools and applications into their marketing process has also crept into the top 10.

That is also one of the top six new issues giving marketers nightmares. The others (see below) include budget cuts, determining how loyalty affects consumer behavior, assessing consumer attention levels, managing consumer expectations and failing to evolve with their brands' audience.

“CMOs and brand managers have plenty of pressure-treated terrors to keep them up, particularly given the new-ish normal of a post-COVID marketplace, supplemented with a rollercoaster economy, so we thought we’d again take a look at which issues are most responsible for their sleepless nights," notes Brand Keys Founder and President Robert Passikoff, noting that there also has been some easement of other concerns -- especially COVID-19-related ones -- in the past year.

"Work-From-Home/Remote Working," and "COVID management issues" were down -14% and -15%, respectively.

"Dealing with political dogma" has also fallen to 2021 levels, being cited only 88% (-11%).

And two items that made last year’s list, but did not show up this year, include:

“Remote working upsetting creativity” and “burnout."