Marketers Struggled to Maintain Strategic Focus
Despite broad agreement that targeting fewer priorities yields better returns, most firms fail to shed objectives under pressure.
Updated on Sept. 30, 2026 in Marketing
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Do you believe concentrating on fewer priorities is more effective than pursuing multiple goals?
A new study by Bensimon Byrne and Ipsos found that while 91% of marketing decision-makers believe concentrating investments drives stronger returns, 89% face persistent obstacles in maintaining that focus. The research sampled 212 leaders across the U.S. and Canada to assess how growth pressures impact strategic discipline.
Why it matters
The findings reveal a significant gap between theoretical strategic alignment and operational execution, as firms frequently default to chasing every objective when growth targets are missed. This tendency to accumulate rather than prioritize marketing initiatives often dilutes impact and wastes resources.
While 95% of the 212 surveyed decision-makers claim their current plans reflect a philosophy of focus, 64% admit that greater discipline would have improved their results. Nearly 80% of firms continue to pursue every objective during periods of growth pressure.
The players
Bensimon Byrne
A Toronto-based agency providing marketing strategy and brand transformation services to enterprise clients.
Ipsos
A global market research and consulting firm that provides data-driven insights through quantitative and qualitative studies.
The details
The data shows that marketers are comfortable with trade-offs in theory, but 60% report that existing priorities are rarely or never deprioritized when new ones are introduced. This cycle results in a bloated marketing plan where effort is spread thin rather than concentrated on a single primary audience, which 94% of respondents agree improves effectiveness. For operators, this indicates that the challenge is not recognizing the value of focus, but enforcing the internal governance necessary to drop legacy objectives.
Timeline
September 30, 2026: The study results were released by Bensimon Byrne and Ipsos.
Market Landscape
This study highlights a persistent planning-execution gap where firms prioritize volume over discipline despite clear industry consensus on the benefits of specialization. It mirrors documented trends in organizational behavior where short-term growth pressure forces teams to abandon long-term strategic constraints.
Business operators should audit their current marketing initiatives to determine which activities are receiving minimal budget and failing to move the needle on primary goals. If your team continues to pursue all objectives when growth slows, you must implement a formal quarterly review process to explicitly deprioritize low-impact tasks.
The takeaway
The primary insight is that organizational inertia is the greatest enemy of marketing effectiveness, forcing leaders to do too much at once. Operators should adopt a 'stop-doing' list as part of every quarterly budget review to prune underperforming objectives and protect core marketing investments.
Further reading
For additional context on developing cohesive outreach strategies, visit the Marketing section.
Live Poll
Do you believe concentrating on fewer priorities is more effective than pursuing multiple goals?
