What Makes a Great CMO in Consumer Packaged Goods Today

Time to Read: 5 mins

CMO in Consumer Packaged Goods Summary:

• CPG CMO Evolution: Modern CMOs blend creativity with data and operational insight to drive measurable growth.
• Retail Media Essential: Retail media spending is growing, becoming a core strategy for capturing consumers at purchase.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Top CMOs collaborate closely with operations to align marketing, demand planning, and fulfillment for maximum impact.

What Makes a Great Modern CMO in Consumer Packaged Goods Today

In a category defined by tight margins, rapidly moving competitors, and continuously changing consumer behaviors, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in consumer-packaged goods (CPG) plays a more complex role than ever before. Gone are the days when marketing leadership was measured simply by the strength of brand campaigns and broad media reach. Now, CMOs are expected to be dynamic business leaders who blend creativity with deep analytical insight, operational savvy, and cross-functional collaboration.

The CPG sector faces unique challenges: tight margins, fragmented media channels, and rapidly changing consumer behaviors fueled by digital innovation. To thrive, modern CMOs must not only tell compelling brand stories, but also harness data-driven strategies and performance marketing to drive measurable growth.

Today’s top CPG CMOs are not just storytellers, they are commercial strategists who align demand generation with retail performance and operational execution. This post covers the essential skills and strategic priorities that define great CMOs in the modern market.

Why the CPG CMO Role Has Changed

The CPG market has undergone major shifts over the past five years. The expansion of digital touchpoints, the rise of DTC channels, and retail media’s growth have forced marketing leaders to become more agile and more closely aligned with revenue.

Modern CPG CMOs are expected to do three things exceptionally well:

• Drive measurable demand
• Accelerate digital transformation
• Collaborate across the business to protect margins and optimize planning

These essential skills require not only marketing savviness, but operational intelligence, financial fluency, and a keen understanding of media performance down to the SKU level.

Mastery of Retail Media Is No Longer Optional

Retail media is now one of the fastest-growing advertising channels in CPG, with global ad spend expected to reach nearly $170 billion by 2025 and exceed $250 billion by 2030. Platforms such as Walmart Connect, Amazon Advertising, and Instacart have become essential to capturing consumers at the moment of purchase.

The modern CPG CMO must:

• Know how to optimize retail media ROI
• Understand retailer-specific data ecosystems
• Build teams that bridge trade marketing and digital activation

Retail media is no longer a specialized tactic, it is a core component of omnichannel success.

Influencer Marketing is a Core Strategy for Growth

Influencer marketing has matured beyond brand awareness and one-off campaigns into its own performance channel. For CPG brands, especially those with strong social media presences, high-performing CMOs treat influencers as creative partners, not isolated endorsements.

Top CMOs in this space leverage influencers for authentic product education, use creator content to fuel paid performance campaigns, and develop long-term relationships that reflect evolving brand narratives.

Rather than outsourcing to agencies blindly, today’s CMOs embed influencer strategy into the broader go-to-market motion and incorporate it seamlessly into the bigger picture brand strategy.

Aligning Marketing With Demand Planning

An ongoing challenge in CPG is that marketing has traditionally worked separately from supply chain and demand forecasting. But in today’s market, poor alignment leads directly to lost revenue, whether it’s in the form of excess inventory or out-of-stock products or other missed opportunities.

Today’s leading CMOs work hand-in-hand with operations to ensure media campaigns align with fulfillment readiness, coordinate promotional activity with production cycles, and use market signals and sell-through data to inform future forecasts.

This cross-functional collaboration is increasingly expected from marketing leadership. Seamless teamwork between marketing and operations has become essential for driving both customer satisfaction and business growth.

Key Traits of Top CPG CMOs in 2025

The modern CPG CMO brings a blended profile, part brand builder, part digital strategist, part general manager. Key skills include:

• Commercial Fluency: Understanding the unit economics behind campaigns
• Data Maturity: Using first-party data to guide everything from media mix to messaging
• Operational Collaboration:Working closely with sales, demand planning, finance, and product

The role demands both strategic vision and tactical agility.

Final Thoughts: The Modern CMO Is a Business Leader First

In today’s CPG landscape, the best CMOs are not just great marketers, they are strategic business leaders who are accountable for revenue growth, influence cross-functional priorities, and empower an organization to adapt to market changes and compete in real time.

Executives looking to hire or evaluate CMO talent should focus less on creative awards and more on commercial outcomes. Look for leaders who understand media performance, supply chain coordination, and consumer insight at scale.

In short: a great CPG CMO doesn’t just build the brand, they build the business.

Ready to strengthen your leadership team with CMOs and executives who understand today’s fast-paced CPG landscape? Let us help you find the perfect fit to drive your business forward.