What CMOs Are Telling Us About Post-Covid Customer Priorities

Consumer priorities are changing as the world recovers from a global pandemic. Add in an accelerating technical landscape and it’s no wonder that marketers are scrambling to understand what consumers want and how to translate those needs into marketing performance.

Leaders of large organizations know that they can improve their marketing performance by paying attention to shifts in consumer priorities. The challenge for marketers in smaller organizations is getting access to the CMO-level data.

Enter The CMO Survey, a free data source with years of survey data available to anybody with a desire to get inside the heads of industry-leading marketers. We’ll dive into the results and share a few recommendations for marketers in organizations of all sizes to improve their brand positioning, strategic messaging, and budget allocations.

What is The CMO Survey?

The CMO Survey is a joint research effort between the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Deloitte, and the American Marketing Association. They survey marketing leaders twice each year to track trends and detect changes in the marketing landscape.

We use the aggregated data to focus our clients’ investments and develop proactive strategies to reach more customers, more effectively.

How CMOs View The Changing Landscape of Customer Priorities

I went deep into The CMO Survey archives in search of customer-focused data to help guide our clients with budget allocations and creative messaging that resonates with today’s consumers. Looking at data before, during, and after the COVID pandemic, it became clear that customer priorities are shifting. Marketers need to adapt to stay relevant.

The chart below shows the changes in customers’ top priorities over the past six years:

A few trends are easy to spot as we compare data over a long time horizon:

Price Sensitivity Dropped During COVID

There was a slight decrease in the importance of low prices during COVID, possibly due to supply chain disruptions and increased costs. Post-COVID, its importance increased again, reflecting a return to price sensitivity as markets stabilized.

Product and Service Quality Takes Priority Above All Else

The importance of superior product quality increased during and after COVID, becoming a key differentiator in a competitive market. As consumers became more discerning and selective, they prioritized quality over many other factors such as price or convenience. This shift reflects a broader trend where trust in a brand is directly tied to the consistent delivery of high-quality products and services. The pandemic underscored that businesses committed to excellence are more likely to thrive, as consumers continue to seek out products and services they can rely on.

Excellent Service is Steadily Declining in Priority

The importance of excellent service decreased during and after COVID, which might reflect changes in service delivery models and customer expectations during the pandemic. This was the most counterintuitive result but led to some interesting ideas to improve marketing content and brand positioning by highlighting your strengths.

So, now that we understand how CMOs rank their customers’ priorities, we can explore ways to improve the overall marketing performance by giving them more of what they think they want.

Improve Marketing Performance by Focusing on Customers’ Top Priorities

Want to stay competitive? Don’t just copy your competitors! Solving your customers’ needs and wants has more of an impact on your marketing performance than chasing shiny objects or adopting the latest marketing buzzwords.

Here are some easy wins for marketers who want to think and act like a CMO, even without the same types of resources. Introduce these concepts into your marketing programs to ensure your messaging delivers what your customers truly value.

Highlight Your Superior Product Quality Early and Often

This priority has consistently been ranked highly and shows a noticeable upward trend, peaking in recent years. CMOs should continue to emphasize quality improvement initiatives as this remains a key driver for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Talk About Your Low Prices If You Can, Focus on Value If You Can’t

There is some fluctuation in the importance of having the lowest prices, but it has generally maintained a lower percentage compared to other priorities. While competitive pricing is still important, it is not the dominant factor for most customers. The perceived value of product or service quality and relationships can offset a higher price point in a strong economy.

Avoid Putting All Your Eggs in The Innovation Basket

Innovation remains crucial but has become table stakes in today’s market. To truly differentiate with innovation, brands need to deliver something new rather than iteratively improve on a “good enough” product.

Ignore Customer Service Excellence at Your Own Risk

The importance of excellent service has fluctuated over time but shows a slight downward trend. CMOs should ensure that service quality does not slip, even if it may not always be the top priority for customers. After all, even great products can get a bad reputation if their customer service fails to improve the overall customer experience.

Building Trust Takes Time But Is Worth The Investment

It takes a long time to build trust with customers. Clearly, it’s worth it as this customer priority has remained relatively stable in recent years, indicating that building and maintaining trust is a fundamental aspect of customer relationships that cannot be overlooked. Highlight the trust signals that differentiate your products and services from the competition with reviews, industry rankings, awards, testimonials, and other forms of social proof.

Now What?

The CMO Survey is a great starting point for understanding changes in the marketing landscape, especially if your organization doesn’t have the resources to conduct its own research. Based on the results from the previous six years, it’s worth taking a look at how your brand positioning, strategic messaging, and marketing budgets align with your customers’ top priorities.

It’s easy to get distracted by what other competitors are doing. But it’s hard to go wrong if you keep listening to your customers.

Want to learn more about how we use research like this to inform better digital marketing strategies for our clients? Get in touch with us for a free consultation to help you attract new customers to your website by putting their needs and wants first.