The top 3 challenges brand marketers face in 2023
The top three challenges from our 2023 report, and how to overcome them.
Brand marketers have a lot to navigate right now. Over the last few years, companies have placed more emphasis on brand issues like tracking market trends, monitoring their competitors, and aligning to social trends.
Yet in 2023, brand marketers continue to struggle for influence and autonomy, and to collect the data they need to track market sentiment, keep their companies relevant, and beat increasing competition—all while staring down looming economic issues.
But brand marketers don’t need to untangle this mess on their own.
Our 2023 brand marketing report: top challenges and opportunities identifies the exact challenges brand marketers must overcome this year—and how they can do so. In this article, we’ll walk you through three of these challenges.
Challenge 1: Getting ahead in a crowded, slowing market
Companies are trying to get ahead in 2023. Sixty-two percent of brand marketers say their companies are focusing on market expansion. Yet taking more of the market won’t be easy; 45% of brand marketers say they face more competition than in 2022.
Companies are also struggling to grow during a down market—48% of brand marketers say slowing growth is a big challenge their company now faces, and only 35% expect their company will gain a competitive edge during this downturn.
The takeaway: Brand marketers must beat the odds in 2023. They must help their companies grow even against stiff competition and an unfavorable market.
Challenge 2: Building influence and autonomy
Companies are undervaluing brand marketers. While 38% of brand marketers say their ability to make autonomous decisions is critical to their role, 49% say they have little or no autonomy or influence, and 34% say their work is valued little or not at all.
Performance may play a role in this problem. Only 15% of brand marketers met all of their goals last year. Yet, 75% state their performance expectations have still increased for 2023, despite the fact 39% say their budgets are stagnant or dropping.
The takeaway: Brand marketers must earn more respect in 2023. They must “do more with less” to hit their rising targets and prove the impact of their work.
Challenge 3: Getting the data they need to do their jobs
Additionally, companies aren’t giving their brand marketers the right data or insights fast enough. Only 44% of brand marketers say their company can anticipate their target market’s needs, and 38% don’t receive feedback fast enough to understand their market.
Brand marketers know they need this data and are hurt by its absence. Forty-three percent of brand marketers believe having access to insights is key to their job, but 73% are struggling to collect and access enough data on their target market to do their jobs.
The takeaway: Brand marketers must generate more data and insights about their target market in 2023. To do so, they need to adopt new tools and resources.
How to navigate these challenges: ask, listen, act
To overcome their biggest challenges in 2023, brand marketers must realign with their shifting industry landscapes, expand their company’s market share, and build insight-driven gameplans. To do all three, they must collect more data from their target audiences and derive actionable insights to drive their programs.
Here’s how.
- Ask: Make sure your ads and messages work before you launch them. With concept testing you can run new concepts by your target audience in less than an hour. Generate precise data, leverage AI to quickly identify which concepts scored well and why, and develop a clear picture of which ideas are winners.
- Listen: Evolve your strategy with a detailed, real-time view of your market. With market research you can run laser-targeted surveys in just a few hours. Gain a deeper understanding of your target audiences, build consensus around your ideas, and develop data-driven plans based on your findings.
- Act: Quantify your brand’s performance and watch it grow over time. With brand tracking you can monitor your brand’s health metrics like awareness, consideration, loyalty, and associations. Gain actionable brand insights, competitive benchmarks, and hard-data proof your work’s delivering results.
The takeaway: Brand marketers who ask, listen, and act—and use the right tools—can overcome 2023’s biggest challenges and capture its biggest opportunities.
Brand marketers have significant challenges to tackle in 2023—but they can also grab some meaningful opportunities. 91% of all marketers believe that brand growth is key to their company’s success, and 97% of brand marketers say their company is making this a priority for 2023. The result: 2023 holds many opportunities for brand marketers with the right tools.
Want to know the whole landscape of challenges and opportunities? Learn 2023’s top challenges, opportunities, and next steps for marketers with detailed data and analysis with our 2023 report.
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