Where CMOs are spending their budgets

Despite the success of internet retailers like Amazon, companies generate less than 10% of their business online—a number that hasn’t changed in a decade.

More than half of the CMOs cite consumers’ need for human interaction as the key factor, according to recent research. Those figures are benchmarked against a 2009 study by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Deloitte and the AMA, which collaborated on a project to survey CMOs. It was the first of its kind and attracted more than 8,300 participants.

Concerns about a possible and impending recession have driven up spending on market penetration, while market development and product and service development budgets have declined since 2009. CMOs also ranked talented staff as being higher on their priority list for increasing revenue than having the right data and technology.

Gaining new customers is always a priority to CMOs, and nearly 72% predicted an increase in customer acquisition. Of note, they see higher spending on new customer acquisition spending than on customer retention. Three-quarters (74%) said they would use channel partners to achieve this.

Marketing budgets for nearly all companies surveyed showed the largest share of budgets (87%) directed at the U.S. market—marking a 10% increase since 2012, long before the current tariff war with China.