Re-Branding the Marketing Ick
The more I sit in the marketing world right now, the more it feels… noisy.
Everyone is telling businesses to: “show up more”, “post more”, “sell more”, “build a personal brand”, “create content consistently”.
And somewhere in all of that, I think we’ve lost the plot slightly.
Because marketing was never supposed to just mean “the stuff on the feed.”
In fact, a conversation over coffee with another marketing professional recently made us laugh that maybe marketing should be regulated in the same way accountancy is!
Not because creativity should be restricted — but because the word “marketing” has become attached to almost anything.
“Can you make this look better?”
“We need some marketing.”
“Sales are down — let’s boost that post.”
It’s become a catch-all solution for problems businesses don’t fully understand yet.
But real marketing — good marketing — should support the whole business.
So that’s not simply visibility, aesthetics and content.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as:
“The management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably.”
So in other words: commercial strategy.
Marketing influences:
→ positioning
→ customer experience
→ communication
→ pricing
→ reputation
→ operations
→ product and service development
→ retention
→ growth
Ever heard of the 4 Ps?
Product, Price, Promotion & Place. Since I learnt this in A-Levels well over a decade ago, they’ve added a few more in - ‘People’ being another important P.
Posting on Social Media sits within the Promotion ‘P’; it’s a marketing tactic… and there’s a whole lot that happens before you get to that part.
The best marketing doesn’t sit in isolation, and it certainly doesn’t just live on your social media feed. Instead, it connects the dots across the entire customer experience, so the business actually makes sense from the outside in.
That’s why a marketers brain should always have a seat in the boardroom!
But honestly, I think that’s why so many businesses feel overwhelmed by “marketing” right now, because they’re trying to create more noise before they’ve created anything core.
The businesses that build real momentum aren’t usually the loudest, but instead the clearest, most consistent, and MOST IMPORTANTLY - the most connected.
Their marketing supports the business, it doesn’t try to rescue it.
Maybe that’s the difference?
Marketing shouldn’t feel like shouting into the void.
It should feel like alignment and as someone who loves everything there is about brands and how they can make us FEEL.
To me, the best brands feel simple, thoughtful and deeply connected.
Everything works together naturally, which makes it look effortless, yet a huge amount has happened behind the scenes (in the marketing department! ;)).
Sacha & Co - Marketing that supports the whole business, not just the feed.