The latest Forrester report has predictions for CMOs (chief marketing officers) to enhance their B2C marketing and customer experience in 2025.
Enterprises are leveraging AI to enhance customer experience, employee productivity, and revenue generation. However, the focus is shifting as initial AI use cases become standard, and leaders recognize that ROI from AI investments will take longer than expected. According to Forrester’s Q2 AI Pulse Survey, 2024, 49 percent of US generative AI decision-makers anticipate ROI within one to three years, while 44 percent expect it in three to five years. Despite impatience, scaling back AI investments prematurely could harm long-term prospects. To succeed, AI leaders should craft strategies aligned with their business goals, prioritize use cases that leverage unique data and expertise, and create a balanced roadmap to ensure sustainable AI growth and reinvestment.
According to Forrester’s Q3 B2C Marketing CMO Pulse Survey, 2024, 78 percent of US B2C marketing executives acknowledge that their marketing and loyalty technologies are siloed. However, this is expected to change by 2025 as economic pressures for efficiency and consumer demands for seamless experiences drive integration. While reducing redundant channel execution is straightforward, the real opportunity lies in synchronizing data. Currently, 80 percent of B2C executives use separate data assets for loyalty and martech. To enhance customer insights, personalization, and cost efficiency, businesses should prioritize a unified data strategy in 2025 that bridges the gap between loyalty and marketing technologies.
Price sensitivity and rising costs are reshaping consumer behavior. In the US, food prices have increased by 22 percent since the pandemic, while brands like Apple and Starbucks are offering rare discounts in markets like China. Companies like SHEIN and Temu are thriving by aggressively undercutting competitors. Forrester finds that affordability drives brand switching, with many consumers choosing cheaper options. As brand loyalty declines, loyalty programs are becoming a key strategy for retaining customers. These programs offer value through features like instant discounts and loyalty points, which over two-thirds of US online adults find important. By 2025, consumers are expected to show less overall brand loyalty but remain committed to brands that consistently provide value without the need for negotiation.
The contact center outsourcing market is massive, with the two largest providers employing nearly a million people. Around 62 percent of contact centers in consumer-facing industries are outsourced, and half of these rely on offshore or nearshore labor. As generative AI is set to automate low-complexity issues, the demand for human agents will decrease. Many outsourcers will reduce headcount in lower-cost markets, but forward-thinking companies will integrate AI gradually to enhance efficiency. CX leaders should prioritize selecting outsourcers who use performance-based models that reallocate human workers to higher-value tasks while expanding automation.
The pressure for profitability has led to the separation of creative ideation from production, with independent creative specialists focusing on ideation and large holding companies managing production through entities like WPP’s Hogarth and Dentsu’s Tag. However, in 2025, new partnerships will emerge that reconnect big ideas with scalable activation. Dentsu will merge Tag with Dentsu Creative, Omnicom will combine Omnicom Production with its new Omnicom Advertising Group, and Plus Company will scale production across 26 independent agencies. CMOs conducting creative agency reviews should seek providers with integrated ideation and execution or build a roster of independent specialists, as seen with General Motors and General Mills.
Despite pressure from the US government to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, the platform remains popular and is not expected to disappear soon. TikTok’s data collection practices are similar to those of US-based platforms, and with both US presidential candidates using TikTok in their campaigns, it remains politically influential. TikTok is investing heavily in lobbying and legal fees, which may extend its appeals process beyond 2025. If the platform were banned, Meta and YouTube could benefit, as TikTok users would likely shift to Reels and Shorts, similar to the trend seen in India after TikTok’s ban in 2020. Brands should continue investing in these platforms and develop a strong creator strategy.
