Marketing Investments Focus on AI, Innovation, Customer Experience, and Branding
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C-Suite Outlook

Marketing Investments Focus on AI, Innovation, Customer Experience, and Branding

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As companies focus on growth through volume rather than price increases, chief marketing officers (CMOs) as the key executives responsible for topline growth are utilizing all the growth drivers at their disposal, including digital technology as well as traditional marketing initiatives such as new products, customer experience, and brand building. This article examines which areas of marketing companies are planning to invest in to drive growth in 2025, based on findings from our C-Suite Outlook 2025 featuring the perspectives of 1,722 C-Suite executives, including 508 CEOs and 287 CMOs, CCOs, and related roles.

Key Insights

As companies focus on growth through volume rather than price increases, chief marketing officers (CMOs) as the key executives responsible for topline growth are utilizing all the growth drivers at their disposal, including digital technology as well as traditional marketing initiatives such as new products, customer experience, and brand building. This article examines which areas of marketing companies are planning to invest in to drive growth in 2025, based on findings from our C-Suite Outlook 2025 featuring the perspectives of 1,722 C-Suite executives, including 508 CEOs and 287 CMOs, CCOs, and related roles.

Key Insights

  • Companies’ marketing investments show that global C-Suites plan to rely primarily on innovation and technology, including AI, to drive growth in 2025.
  • Marketing’s key investment areas include data, analytics, and AI; new product development; customer experience; and brand building & advertising, most of which tend to have a medium- to longer-term payoff.
  • While measurement & attribution is not a top marketing investment item for 2025, marketing leaders should stay focused on it to show their initiatives’ financial impact and allocate marketing dollars accordingly.

Marketing Investments Can Significantly Fuel Corporate Growth Plans

Compared to 2024, marketing and communications investments for this year are more focused on tech and less on cutting costs to boost profits. To grow in 2025, M&C leaders around the world are focused on innovation, including maintaining their 2024 focus on new products/services as a means to advance profits (see Figures 1 and 2). But in addition, this year CMOs and CCOs are more likely to be planning to invest in technology, including AI, compared to 2024 (37% vs. 25%) and less likely to be cost cutting to increase profits (24% vs. 47%)—keeping in mind that this year’s numbers might generally be lower than last year’s given the restriction to two picks this year compared to three last year. In addition, entering new markets/geographies is a markedly lower priority for CMOs/CCOs year over year (13% vs. 32%).

Increasing prices is also lo

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