By Forbes Staff,Tom Barkley
Copyright forbes
A new top priority has emerged for today’s chief marketing officers: safeguarding customer data. Protecting the privacy and security of their customers’ information topped the list of marketing priorities among CMOs who took part in the Forbes Research 2025 CxO Growth Survey.
More than half of CMOs said they were focused on strengthening data privacy and protections over the next two years, up from around four in 10 in the previous year’s survey.
CMOs are taking more ownership over data protection policies, says Stephanie Liu, senior analyst at Forrester Research, who focuses on the intersection of marketing and privacy.
The shift in focus is being driven not only by growing consumer awareness about data threats, but also the realization that giving customers more control over their data can boost engagement, says Liu. “The more you know about your customers, the more effectively you can market to them.”
CMOs shared their strategies and challenges in the Forbes Research 2025 CxO Growth Survey.
Forbes Research
Ahead, explore additional findings from the 2025 survey, which polled more than 1,000 global C-suite executives between November and December 2024, including 200 CMOs.
Building Trust, Earning Loyalty
As consumers grow more aware about the risks to their personal information, they’re taking action, says Liu, by limiting the data they share, joining class action lawsuits over data and privacy breaches and spending their money at businesses they can trust.
“Consumers have a lot of choice in a lot of categories, and they can take their business elsewhere. Trust is very hard to earn and very easy to lose, and that definitely holds true in the privacy and security world.”
Stephanie Liu
Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
More than eight out of 10 CMOs agreed that a privacy-first approach to marketing is a fundamental requirement for maintaining customer trust and loyalty, according to the survey.
When asked how they’re working to provide the best possible customer experience, the top answer was enhancing cybersecurity to ensure the safety of customer data. Nearly two-thirds of CMOs cited data security as the key to customer satisfaction, compared with just over one-third in the previous year’s survey.
Getting A Grip On AI
The ascendancy of AI in the marketing world has made data protection all the more critical, as the tracking of data from various sources becomes increasingly fraught.
“I do think AI is going to make this a much bigger headache,” says Liu, since CMOs traditionally haven’t been tasked with evaluating risk of data from third-party sources such as marketing agencies and technology providers. The task of explaining to customers how their data is being used also tends to fall on the marketing department.
In the survey, nearly three-quarters of CMOs agreed that robust data governance is needed to navigate the challenges created by AI around issues like privacy, ethics and data quality. That’s up from about two-thirds of respondents last year.
“I think one of the trickiest things about AI is that consumers don’t understand it,” says Liu, noting that as of yet, “there are no really firm established guardrails on what is or isn’t an appropriate use of AI.”
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