• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 27, 2023

Chief marketing officers are in a reasonably optimistic state. 

While only 9% are extremely confident about marketing’s ability to handle economic adversity/uncertainty against their revenue growth mandate, 25% remain very upbeat and 39% moderately so, according to Outsmart Adversity: How CMOs can Weather Economic Headwinds And Emerge Poised For Growth, a study from the CMO Council and Sprinklr.

But it depends on how you add it up. Thirty-six percent say their budgets are growing, while 31% say they remain the same and 33% report there has been a decrease. 

Similarly, 25% report that their technology budgets are decreasing, with the remainder split by between increases and remaining the same by a 36-29% margin.

Some blame their CFOs. Of those polled, 19% strongly agree they are able to convince their CFOs to invest in marketing and not cut the budget, while 40% somewhat agree, 19% disagree, and 21% neither agree or disagree. 

Only 23% have a very effective relationship with IT, but 99% agree it is imperative for CMOs and CIOs to develop a competitive advantage with CX.

What are their 12-month plans for when they have emerged from this uncertain period? They expect to:

• Orchestrate customer journeys to drive an omnichannel experience — 21%
• Drive customer acquisition and growth — 20%
• Leverage AI and data to scale analytics — 17%
• Double down on loyalty and retention — 12%
• Optimize OpEx by unifying Martech — 11%
• Invest in brand reputation — 10%
• Talent acquisition and retention — 7%
• Other — 2% 

Meanwhile, those who feel highly confident cite these strategies and capabilities as extremely important: 

• Leveraging data analytics to become more predictive — 80% 
• Articulating marketing’s value to impact revenue — 65% 
• Growing loyalty/retention/LTV through social care and personalization — 55% 
• Consolidating MarTect and leveraging AI to deliver omnichannel CX — 43% 
• Balancing investments across brand and demand — 43%
• Driving acquisition through conversational commerce — 27% 

Large percentages also think these activities are very important. 

In contrast, less confident marketers say these strategies are extremely important: 

• Leveraging data analytics to become more predictive — 63%
• Articulating marketing's value to impact revenue — 48%
• Growing loyalty/retention/LTV through social care and personalization — 48%
• Consolidating MarTech and leveraging AI to deliver omnichannel CX — 34%
• Balancing investments across brand and demand — 29% 
• Driving acquisition through conversational commerce — 19%

The CMO Council surveyed almost 500 global marketing leaders.

Of those polled, 28% were in firms with greater than $5 billion in estimated 2023 revenue; 29% in firms with $1 billion-$5 billion estimated revenue; 12% with $751 million to $1 billion; 6% with $501 million to $750 million, and 25% with less than $500 million in estimated revenue.