What Does Marketing Do?

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Marketers Are Doing Too Much!

Marketing is often accused of trying to do too much—the unfortunate implication is that marketing is chaotic or not focused on what matters. In this post, we’ll zoom out to explore why marketing appears out of control, the challenges of a broad remit, and most importantly, why a clear, strategic approach is essential to make all the moving parts work together to fuel business growth.

The Expansive Role of Marketing

Marketing teams handle a wide range of activities, from crafting five-year strategic plans to preparing presentation decks for meetings later in the day. Many different disciplines and skill sets sits under the marketing umbrella. I’ve created a chart of marketing disciplines to visualise the breadth and scope. It is a huge and can be unwieldy, no wonder that someone outside looking in would be overwhelmed and question the high level of seemingly disparate activities.

Whether you have a large or small team there’s a chance they are doing, or have on their list to do, most of these things, and probably a lot more that I’ve inadvertently omitted.

This is the reality of modern marketing, an evolution in response to a highly dynamic environment where:

• Buyer behaviour is changing

• Competitors move fast

• Products mature

• Differentiation is challenging

• Channels are fragmented

• And marketers need to adopt and master new technologies at pace

Because there isn’t a single silver bullet in marketing, successful marketing teams need to undertake this wide range of disciplines consistently and well to build momentum.

Marketing is cumulative—it’s the layering of a combination of efforts over time that leads to significant outcomes.

The Key To Success: Strategy

With so many activities on the plate, the answer isn’t to cut back on what marketing does. Instead, the solution is to tie all these activities together with a clear, focused strategy. Consider the following guiding questions:

❓Is there a strategy that ties all these activities together?
❓And is the strategy tied to a business goal that is clear and measurable?
❓Do team members know the purpose behind their tasks?
❓Can they clearly articulate the overall strategy?
❓Do they know how their contributions ladder up to the goal?

Without a clear goal and strategy it’s just a list of tactics. And that’s not marketing.