For a profession built on influencing perception, marketing has done a remarkably poor job of managing its own.
Ask most SME owners what marketing means and you’ll hear broadly the same answers. Social media, websites, lead generation, advertising, content creation, PR and email campaigns. None of those answers are wrong, but they all describe activity rather than the discipline. Somewhere along the way marketing became defined by its outputs rather than the thinking behind them.
As marketers, we have probably contributed to that perception ourselves. We talk comfortably about channels, engagement and campaign performance, often without explaining the commercial thinking that makes those activities worthwhile in the first place. The result is that many business leaders view marketing as a support function responsible for promotion rather than a discipline that helps organisations identify opportunities, make decisions and create growth.
Marketing has become defined by its outputs rather than the thinking behind them.
Activity vs Strategy
That distinction matters because businesses that view marketing purely as execution often end up treating symptoms rather than causes. Growth slows and the instinct is to increase activity:
Sometimes those investments deliver results. Often they fail to gain traction, not because the tactics are wrong, but because the strategic questions that should have guided them were never properly considered.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”. There is no mention of social media or advertising because those things were never intended to be the discipline itself. They are simply ways of expressing marketing decisions.
At its core, marketing is about understanding where growth can come from, who it will come from and how an organisation can create value in a way that is meaningful for customers and commercially viable for the business.
Why This Matters for SMEs
This is particularly relevant for SMEs because they rarely have the resources to recover from poor decisions. Every pound spent targeting the wrong audience, solving the wrong problem or competing in the wrong space is a pound that could have been invested elsewhere.
The businesses that grow most effectively are not always those doing the most marketing. More often, they are the ones making the clearest choices about
The businesses that grow most effectively are not always those doing the most marketing. They are often the ones making the clearest choices.
The Fundamentals Still Matter
That is why some of marketing’s oldest principles remain relevant. Segmentation, targeting and positioning may not sound especially exciting, but organisations still need to understand which customers matter most, where opportunities exist and how they can establish a distinctive position in the market.
The tools available to marketers have changed dramatically; the fundamentals have not.
The same is true of brand. Too often it is reduced to logos, colours and visual identity when, in reality, brand is built through the experience an organisation creates. It is the impression left by every interaction, every promise kept and every expectation met.
Strong brands reduce uncertainty, build trust and make buying decisions easier. In commercial terms, they often translate into
Strategy Before Execution
Of course, many SME leaders will argue that strategic marketing sounds like something to worry about later. The priority today is revenue, pipeline and sales. That’s understandable.
But strategic marketing is not about lengthy planning documents or theoretical models. It is simply the process of making deliberate choices before committing scarce time and money to execution.
Every business has a market position whether it has consciously chosen one or not. Every business has a brand whether it actively manages it or not. The question is whether those things are being shaped intentionally or left to emerge by default.
Every business has a market position and a brand. The question is whether they are being shaped intentionally or left to emerge by default.
A Growth Discipline, Not the Colouring-In Department
Perhaps that is why Peter Drucker’s observation remains so relevant.
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has only two functions: marketing and innovation.”
The statement is deliberately provocative, but it reflects an important truth. Sustainable growth depends on understanding customers and creating value for them. Marketing was never meant to be confined to campaigns and communications. Its role is much broader than that.
Giving marketing a seat at the table from day one is therefore not a luxury reserved for larger organisations. For many SMEs, it is one of the mechanisms through which they become larger organisations.
And until we start talking about marketing as a growth discipline rather than a promotional function, marketing’s image problem is likely to persist. More importantly, many businesses will continue investing in activity when what they really need is direction.
Whether you need a next quarter growth programme, support to launch, or experienced leadership at the table, driveBM helps you build, deliver, and grow with confidence.
Schedule a 30-minute triage call and let’s get to work!
