Stop treating marketing as a grudge. It's your most potent tool for growth.

You don’t do marketing because you want to. 

You do it because you want to grow. 

Marketing is a grudge. The goal is to grow.

Businesses often postpone a serious investment in marketing until they can no longer grow or find that they have exhausted all their options. It becomes a case of “What do we do now”? And the answer, unfortunately, is “marketing.” 

But here’s the good news…

Marketing, more than any other business function, should have a significant impact. 

  • Finance doesn’t make an impact—they just ensure you follow the rules.
  • HR (or whatever it’s called these days) makes no impact. They simply keep the dam wall from bursting. 
  • Sales don’t make an impact (I said that); they harvest what’s available—picking the low-hanging fruit. 
  • Manufacturing just makes stuff. Fill orders.
  • IT maintains your firewall and prevents you from experimenting with cloud solutions.

There’s only one function that makes an impact or that can make a real one —marketing.

Marketing must make an impact. 

It must build brands that stand out from the clutter. It must communicate messages that draw attention. It should help you secure new, previously inaccessible revenue that wasn’t previously attainable. It must position your business as a contender when, up to now, it was unknown or not taken seriously. It must show your people where you’re going because, as I said in the previous newsletter, your brand must be positioned ahead of your business - it sets a vision of where you’re going. 

Marketing drives culture—both within your business and in society at large. It stirs, irritates, interests and sets reminders. 

Marketing is indeed an optional expense, unlike other business functions. But it is the only one that is potent.

If you want to do more—sell more, attract more talent—you need to do marketing.




Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

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