It’s a tricky time to head up marketing for a B2C brand. At the start of the year, consumer sentiment was the strongest it’s been in years. Then last month the pundits reported that consumer confidence had sunk, just in time for the Conference Board to report it was back up in May, smashing economists’ estimates.

For our latest CMO Roundtable, four B2C CMOs (well, three marketing leaders plus one CMO recently turned CEO) joined Doug Anderson and our team to share how they’re steering through this turbulent environment. With the participants representing four different industries (esports, CPG, fast-casual dining and banking), each is navigating marketing challenges that reflect the intricacies of their respective sectors.

Here are the highlights from our conversation:

Esports. The CMO who leads marketing for an esports company with an interesting B2B2C model shared that the organization recently shifted its GTM strategy and revenue model. This newly hired marketing leader has been charged with executing the new strategy but is operating within very cyclical market. As an additional challenge, the majority of his brand and awareness strategy focuses on organic social – primarily TikTok. So, his team is closely watching the game of chicken going on between Congress and the social platform’s Chinese owners.

CPG. For the past several years, the CMO of an established food brand has overseen the biggest growth period in the company’s long history. His expert creative and editorial team has built a digital media machine – so much so that YouTube ad revenue share is helping to offset his marketing budget. And yet his focus is on building an even bigger digital footprint. As he says, “it’s not worth doing if it can’t scale.”

“It’s not worth doing if it can’t scale.”

-CPG CMO

 

Fast-casual dining. Given current inflation levels, it’s not surprising that price sensitivity is a key factor for the former marketing leader turned CEO of a new fast-casual concept. Consumers are increasingly mindful of how and where they spend their discretionary dollars, so while you might immediately think of Instagram as a priority digital channel for a restaurant chain, Google Reviews have proven to be this company’s best marketing tool. Her team is also experimenting with LinkedIn ads to try to attract local workers for lunch and dinner.

Banking. Old-school savings accounts are sexy again now that interest rates are in the 4-5% range for the first time in ages. With consumers shopping for banks like they shop for bikinis on Temu, marketing leaders of financial institutions can no longer rely solely on their companies’ brands to keep deposits in house and customer churn low. A key challenge cited by the CMO of a large bank is breaking through the clutter in such a noisy market. Video is a key component of their marketing strategy. They’re also putting a renewed emphasis on defining their core customer profile and measuring life-time value.

Thanks to these four marketing leaders for taking the time to share their insights with us. It’s clear that riding the roller-coaster of American consumer sentiment requires a blend of creativity, adaptability, and strategic foresight.