With the past two years providing an array of unique challenges such as the pandemic, supply chain issues, and the death of the cookie, how are CMOs really thinking about the evolving marketing landscape? Wunderkind surveyed 100+ senior marketers at leading B2C brands to answer just that.
We created the CMO State of The Union Whitepaper with the goal of finding out what senior marketing leaders were truly thinking about the current state of eCommerce. The findings suggest that we’re on the cusp of a new golden age of marketing, where outdated playbooks are being thrown out, marketing leaders are reassessing their priorities, and anything is possible.
Online Marketing Spend
Many CMOs were able to negotiate temporary budget increases to drive revenue and brand awareness, especially online. 79% of CMOs have shifted more of their marketing spend online, but only 29% feel this shift will last, and nearly 71% are already planning to reduce their online marketing spend in the future.
In our webinar, Sean Patel, VP of Growth Marketing at JLo Beauty suggested, “I think you should be going back to the whiteboard every month and seeing what you want, where you want it, and what needs to be changed.”
CMOs feel they are delivering best-in-class marketing experiences, yet consumer feedback reveals customer frustrations. The CMOs in our study admitted recommending products based on consumer interest was a weak point.
Say Goodbye to Cookies
60% of CMOs say they feel prepared for cookie deprecation, but 40% feel there is more work to be done.
Amanda Bopp, VP of North America at Kate Spade, said, “We are big believers in first-party data; we have amassed a significant amount of it.We treat that data with the utmost respect.”
The Importance of First-Party Data
Marketers ranked first-party data as having the least positive impact on marketing results as legacy SaaS systems can only identify up to 5% of website visitors.
Rahul Chand, VP of Marketing at AAA Northeast noted, “The richer and better our first-party data is, the less we have to rely on cookies to be able to support our digital marketing efforts.”
The Importance of First-Party Data
While marketers say first-party data isn’t working for them, this is likely because they can’t identify enough of their own traffic without third-party cookies. But with a performance growth platform that is centered around first-party data, marketers are able to identify more of their traffic to unlock a new, scalable revenue channel.
Outdated Tech Stacks
A mere 1% of company leaders believe their company is extremely mature when it comes to technology, and only 9% of company leaders believe their tech strategy greatly enables their marketing performance. Even companies that grew up as leaders in eCommerce face the challenge of dated technology.
Amanda Bopp said, “I think it’s an important exercise from time to time to go through and evaluate the unique value your partners provide in your customer experience,” Bopp said.
Legacy SaaS technology is expected to drive revenue, but often it soaks it up. Revenue as a service (RaaS) is the next generation of the traditional SaaS model which layers on top of jlegacy SaaS to not only mature the technology but also guarantee revenue.
How can we combat the issues of outdated software that are holding marketers back? With budget changes and cookie depreciation, marketers will need to bring their A-game and come up with new, creative ideas to compensate for that lost revenue. CMOs must look to new performance growth channels that will allow them to build sustainable revenue, instead of relying on low ROAS channels such as Google and Facebook.
In our CMO State of the Union webinar, Wunderkind’s CRO, Richard Jones, joins industry leaders from Kate Spade, Case-Mate, JLo Beauty, and more, to discuss these key findings and their thoughts on the current eCommerce landscape.