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It’s back to basics for B2C marketing in 2024. A pressing need for profitable growth amid a backdrop of an even more divisive, mobilized, and activist consumer base puts values-based marketing on hiatus. This means that CMOs will favor practical marketing practices in 2024 over purpose-led marketing campaigns. They will double down on the principles of marketing: quality products, cost-effective pricing, dependable distribution models, and uncontentious brand experiences.
Prioritizing practicality doesn’t mean that innovation gets eschewed, however. Generative AI will once again dominate the headlines in 2024, but this time will be different: Industry trades and vendor press releases will tout practical use cases that enable CMOs to enhance their marketing functions with new creative capabilities, martech integrations, and operational efficiencies. This places the CMO at the epicenter of generative AI innovation, where they will be expected to lead.
For the first time in four years, Forrester saw a dip in US online adults who say that they regularly purchase from brands that align with their personal values. An election year in the thick of the culture war — topped by a former president’s/current candidate’s criminal court trials — is a recipe for untenable polarization in the United States.
indicated that they were either exploring or using generative AI. If 2023 was the year of generative AI exploration, 2024 will be the year of generative AI experimentation. CMOs will continue to see generative AI show up as features in vendor tools and in the capabilities of their agency partners. But being in the passenger’s seat of this transformative tech isn’t enough toHalf of CMOs will pursue martech ecosystem integration over marketing cloud dreams.
The monolithic marketing cloud will finally give way to an integrated martech ecosystem. In 2024, companies’ martech roadmaps will prioritize functional consolidation over vendor consolidation. Why? To operate tech capabilities all in one place. Half of companies will pursue this ecosystem approach to martech by adopting new enabling tech such as customer data platforms, predictive and generative AI, and cloud infrastructure.