Jessica Hawthorne

expert panel

Companies refresh their brands for plenty of legitimate reasons: The business may have evolved, its audience may have changed or its identity may no longer reflect its products, positioning or ambitions. Changes in markets, business models, acquisitions or target audiences can create a gap between what a company has become and what its brand still communicates.Still, even a well-founded refresh can go wrong. The most visible risk is backlash when customers feel a company has discarded or even disrespected something they valued about the old brand. But there’s another, quieter risk, too: In the push to look current, a company can strip away the visual cues, language, personality and positioning that made its brand recognizable, leaving behind something polished but generic and harder to distinguish from competitors. For example, the streamlined, sleeker logo briefly introduced by Cracker Barrel in 2025 got pushback from customers and commentators who described it as “soulless,” “bland,” and “generic.”So how can CMOs modernize a brand without alienating the people who already value it or stripping away the qualities that set it apart? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share what separates a strong brand refresh from a forgettable one—and what marketing leaders should protect most carefully as a brand evolves.

expert panel

For years, search strategy largely revolved around earning a prominent place in a list of links. AI-generated answers are changing the front door to search: A 2026 Pew Research Center survey found that 60% of U.S. adults say they read the AI summaries at the top of search results, and about four in 10 say they use AI chatbots to search for information. For CMOs, that shift raises a bigger question than where a brand ranks: What will people learn about the company when an AI system assembles the answer for them?That question sits at the center of answer engine optimization, or AEO, the practice of making a brand’s information easy for AI systems to find, trust and cite. These systems rarely rely on a single page. Google explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode can run multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources, identifying supporting web pages as they build a response. As a result, an answer about a company may draw not only on its website but also on news coverage, analyst commentary, reviews and other third-party sources. A polished corporate website establishes what a company says about itself, but in an AI-driven search environment, that story has to be corroborated elsewhere.That puts owned media (the channels a company controls) and earned media (the coverage and endorsements it has to win) on the same team. The challenge for CMOs is to keep core facts, claims and positioning consistent across both so AI systems encounter a coherent picture without forcing every channel to sound exactly the same. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, a curated group of leaders with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising and the rise of AI in marketing, explore how to bring owned and earned media together to strengthen the authority, consistency and trust brands need in an answer-driven search environment.

expert panel

For many products and services, cost consciousness is changing what buyers need to hear before they’re willing to spend. U.S. consumers are trimming nonessential purchases and spending less on individual shopping trips as financial pressures persist, while businesses are scrutinizing purchases more closely and looking for more ways to control costs. Across consumer and B2B markets, that creates a challenge for brands: convincing buyers that their offerings are still worth making room for in a tighter budget.For marketers, the answer isn’t necessarily to make the price lower. Campaigns have to acknowledge real financial pressure while giving buyers a compelling reason to believe a purchase is worth making—and communicate value without turning discounts into the brand’s strongest selling point or giving customers a reason to hold off until the next promotion.The right campaign approach can strengthen confidence in the purchase while preserving the value customers associate with the brand over time. Drawing on expertise in brand strategy, digital advertising and customer engagement, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share strategies for reaching cost-conscious buyers without sacrificing long-term brand value.

expert panel

Values-based marketing can create a meaningful connection between a brand and its audience, building longer-term loyalty than simple price- or product-forward messaging. But it’s not necessarily a slam-dunk strategy: Americans are evenly divided on whether companies making public statements about political or social issues is important to them. And when companies weigh in on social causes or emotionally charged issues, the message itself is only part of what people are evaluating. Audiences are also asking whether the brand’s position feels credible—and whether the company has earned the right to speak.Once a brand does choose to engage in values-based marketing, credibility becomes critical. Recent consumer research found that, across age cohorts, Americans consider honesty to be the most important brand value; simply taking a stand carries less weight. For marketing leaders, that raises an important question: Is the company expressing a value it demonstrably lives by or simply borrowing the language of a cause?So how can CMOs recognize when values-based marketing is crossing into performative compassion, and how can they ensure their messaging remains credible and ethical? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share the warning signs to watch for and how to approach cause-related marketing with greater care.

expert panel

A rising conversion rate is the kind of metric that can make a leadership team feel good about growth. Customers are moving through the funnel more efficiently, acquisition costs may be improving and marketing can point to a clear return on investment. But there’s a critical question hiding behind those results: Is the business actually creating more demand, or simply getting better at converting the demand that was already there?That distinction matters because efficiency can improve even as a company’s future growth potential weakens. A business can become highly effective at reaching people who already know the brand, have an existing need or are close to making a purchase without expanding the pool of potential customers. Research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising reinforces the importance of balancing short-term sales activation with longer-term brand building, noting that sustained investment can contribute to growth over time.For marketing leaders, the challenge is to make that difference visible inside the organization. Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank bring deep experience in brand storytelling, digital advertising and customer engagement to this challenge. Here, these marketing leaders explore how to tell if a business that is turning interest into revenue today is also creating the conditions for more customers to enter the market tomorrow.

expert panel

For CMOs and agency leaders, a lean team may no longer be a temporary state—a rough quarter or short hiring freeze—but the new normal. Many organizations are remaining cautious about adding headcount, and the broader U.S. labor market continues to reflect a “low-hire, low-fire” environment in which employers are holding teams relatively steady rather than expanding quickly.At the same time, the demands placed on marketing teams haven’t become any lighter. CMOs are still expected to support growth, strengthen customer relationships, build brands and keep pace with rapidly changing technology. And many marketing leaders are being asked to do all this not only with small teams but also with limited funds. In Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey, 56% of respondents said their budgets aren’t big enough to fully deliver on 2026 strategies, and 54% reported insufficient resources.  That combination—small teams and tight budgets—leaves marketing and agency leaders with an important question: When capacity is limited, which work truly deserves the team’s attention? The answer can’t simply be to squeeze more activity out of fewer people. When additional hires may or may not be coming, effective prioritization means making deliberate trade-offs, protecting the work that creates the most value, and getting comfortable with leaving some worthwhile ideas undone.Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank are a curated group of experienced marketing leaders with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising, customer engagement and leading lean teams. Here, they share lessons CMOs and agency leaders can use to set sharper priorities, make better use of limited capacity, and keep lean teams focused when future hiring remains uncertain.