Growth opportunities and influence over price: Your Marketing Week
Many of the challenges of last year remain, but there is also a wealth opportunity for marketers to explore in 2026.
While the new year demands resolve to do things differently, the arbitrary stop and start as one year ends and another begins doesn’t, unfortunately, wipe the slate clean. The same challenges that were in front of you all at the end of the year are front and centre as 2026 begins.
But then so are the opportunities.
In this week’s round-up, I am – admittedly crudely – going to offer a to-do list based on the several excellent year ahead articles that my colleagues have written.
Happy New Year all.
Be excited about what’s possible
“Fundamentally, our job is to drive growth. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing your job.” So says Chris Doe, marketing director of Pilgrim’s Europe in a feature about growth opportunities, and the role marketing plays in helping to unlock them.
Those reading this shouldn’t take it as a ticking off, absolutist as the comment is, but as a reminder. Economic growth might be anaemic, consumer confidence might be brittle and the cost of doing business might be rising, but that doesn’t mean marketers are helpless, or the task of being a partner in growth insurmountable.
If you’re doing your job right, the insight marketers can bring, the innovation that they can oversee and orchestration of the tactical levers they have at their disposal means they can make a positive contribution to meeting the challenges businesses face.
As Doe puts it: “There is no other function in the business that is defining where it goes next. It’s really up to marketing to say, this is where the next consumer opportunity is.”
Be an influencer
But there are, of course, considerable barriers to entry into the room where it happens for marketers, chief among them the scope of the role for many.
Last year, our Career & Salary Survey found a significant chunk of marketers were lacking confidence in their strategic capabilities, and those that had retreated to tactics were left with the 1P for promotion.
Not a healthy state if you want to make a difference.
Price in particular will be key in 2026. Inflation and cost of living are still issues, and the quasi-imperialism of the US President is only going to exacerbate things.
All caveats considered, we published a piece on the price innovation opportunity this year, and beyond. It’s full of reasons why marketers should have influence over price and also analysis of price innovation. Also known as going beyond profit-burning price promotions.
I like this take from seasoned B2B marketer Graham Wylie: “If marketing isn’t in the room when the pricing conversations happen you have a finance-led mindset, whereas marketers can drive a broader conversation around what price does for the business.”
At the very least, 2026 should be about the 2Ps of marketing.
Value the human premium
There are many very significant issues for B2B marketers to address this year, some of them are detailed in the trends predicted in the article below.
Technology looms large, as it does for all marketers. AI, of course, features, as does the promise of operational and cost efficiency. Marketing technology also gets a mention. Not new for 2026, but the challenge of coordination and the productivity possibilities are more attractive than ever.
Among the talk of data and digital comes a call not to get carried away. To not outsource the job. And to remember the limitations of AI, in particular. “It comes back to brand trust and the credibility of the source,” notes HSBC’s Nicole German. Built and maintained by people.
A note for others…
We also published analysis on the state of recruitment, and the prospects for movement. The general consensus among the experts canvassed is that the appetite to hire for permanent roles, particularly at the senior end, is improving. Indeed, just this week we have reported on several CMO and marketing director hires.
But there’s still some risk aversion.
“There’s a lot of businesses that are dragging their heels, that are scared to make a decision about appointing a search firm or going to market, let alone make a decision about hiring somebody,” observes experienced recruiter Rowan Fisk in the article.
We have reported the trend towards companies opting for interim hires or boosting less senior roles instead of replacing CMOs or equivalent extensively over the last two years.
For those that did, it was a damning indictment of marketing. No company would ever fail to replace their finance lead in tough times. Senior marketers are seen as discretionary. Let us hope that this quite ridiculous state of affairs is over, and those that were guilty of vacillation are illustrative of a blip.
The week ahead
We will be exploring how brands can stand out in commoditised categories and disrupt “zombie-like” behaviour.
