Dive Brief:

• CMOs that prioritize and delivery hyper-relevant customer experiences generate 11% higher shareholder returns, according to a new Accenture report, "Way Beyond Marketing—The Rise of the Hyper-Relevant CMO," shared with Marketing Dive. The report is based on a survey of 1,000 CMOs and more than 500 CEOs at large organizations around the world. 
• Thirty-one percent of CEOs expect CMOs to use customer data and insights to create new products, services and experiences. The most innovative CMOs, which make up the top 17%, partner with the C-suite to develop customer-obsessed organizational cultures. These CMOs are more likely than their peers to use emerging technology to predict customer behavior and identify untapped revenue streams. 
• Most CEOs and CMOs, or 90%, agree that the role of marketers will change significantly over the next three years. Leading CMOs are thinking ahead about skills their teams will need for future success, and are more likely to rely on new marketing roles like immersive experience designers, growth hackers, futurologists, trust leaders, chief storyteller and custom experience curators. 

Dive Insight:

The CMOs that deliver hyper-relevant customer experiences are transitioning into "living businesses," which refers to those constantly anticipating and responding to consumers’ needs and drive value, the Accenture report states. CMOs need to use advanced insights and analytics to inform future strategies, build marketing and sales centered on the consumer and organization, leverage partnerships and deliver cost-effective technology to create more personalization and scalable marketing programs.

As the CMO role continues to evolve and consumers expect relevant, customized experiences from brands, only a select few CMOs are considered innovative in the customer experience approach, per the report. This aligns with previous research showing that just 7% of sales leaders and 9% of CMOs see themselves as owners of the customer experience, according to the CMO Council, SAP Hybris and SellingPower magazine. 

Customer experience is a much-talked-about issue in marketing today, as brands now see customer experience equally as important for brands as being considered innovative and well-known. Other research showed that brands that focus on innovating customer experience grow 200% more than others, according to WPP and Kantar Millward Brown.

In 2019, CMOs are expected to focus more on re-evaluating their marketing technology to emphasize customer experience and brands with a purpose and promise will drive companywide vision and energize customers, according to Forrester. The Accenture report also revealed that leading CMOs understand the importance of being highly relevant to consumers, and 76% think consumers have higher expectations of a brand’s purpose. Seventy percent of CEOs said companies that stand for a bigger purpose are more successful.