49% of CMOs less confident making decisions post-pandemic
Almost half of CMOs are less confident in decision making due to feeling ‘under pressure and ill-equipped’ following the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research from customer data platform Treasure Data.
CMO and other marketing leaders feel they don’t have the right tools to make good decisions post-Covid
In the marketing industry, the pandemic has had a significant impact on brands, with many pivoting on everything from price to product and accelerating their digital transformations.
Andrew Stephenson, director of marketing EMEA at Treasure Data, says “It has been a rollercoaster couple of years for marketers in particular and it remains up for debate whether we’re out of the woods yet.
“Our latest research has revealed the worrying impact of the pandemic on marketers’ confidence in decision making, at a time when budgets were slashed and every penny of ROI was expected to be proven.”
The research itself comprises the views of 441 senior marketing leaders in the UK and forms part of a wider report, titled Better Decisions in the Age of Unpredictability, which explores the impact the pandemic has had on leadership decision making among 500 C-suite members.
Survey fieldwork was undertaken on behalf of Treasure Data by Opinium, with fieldwork conducted between October 7 and 19 2021. The survey sample was 1,536 C-suite decision makers in the UK, France and Germany across a range of industries and organization types and sizes. In each country, minimum 500 C-suite decision makers were polled.
What does it find?
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Seven in 10 (71%) marketing leaders reveal they feel under more pressure to make the right decisions quickly
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60% report that decision making is now more complicated than ever before
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63% of leaders agree marketing decisions are dependent on the quality of data, but 56% believe their business doesn’t truly harness its power
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47% report that they struggle to amalgamate available data to form a holistic picture of both their brand and their customers
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64% think a more cohesive understanding of the data available would help them do their job more effectively
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These failings are impacting the ability of marketing leaders to make good decisions – 65% claim they are sometimes forced to make business-critical decisions without adequate data or information and 4 in 10 (39%) state that even with the data they need, they don’t feel confident interpreting and using it to make informed decisions
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Mounting pressure to sift through large amounts of data has resulted in 57% of marketing leaders being afraid of making the wrong decision, and a third (34%) admitting to frequently making them
Stephenson concludes: “Senior marketers have revealed just how much they rely on quality data when making decisions, yet lack faith in their organization’s ability to sweat its data to its full ability.
“The inability of marketers to make effective informed decisions with confidence and speed has tangible impact across the entirety of the business. With uncertain times ahead, marketers remain under pressure to demonstrate how every decision returns value. Businesses must act now to properly equip their teams with the insights and tools necessary to turn data into tangible insights – critical if businesses wish to properly reconnect with their customers and regain customer-centricity.”