As a branding strategist, I don’t typically advocate isolating marketing as a siloed function—at the executive level, business goals should transcend departmental boundaries. Whether it’s revenue growth, customer loyalty, or market leadership, the goal is the goal. How we get there should be driven by strategy, not departmental lines.
But here’s the reality: As we scale organizations and activate different parts of the business to achieve these goals, clarity becomes power. Especially in marketing—often misunderstood, frequently overcomplicated, and too rarely aligned with executive priorities.
So let’s simplify—strategically.
Before dissecting the various components of marketing, it helps to anchor ourselves with a foundational definition.
So, What Is Marketing?
At its core, Marketing is the act of putting your offering in the world in a way that people understand it, want it, and can get it.
In other words, it’s how you communicate your value to the market.
From a Cult Branding perspective, this isn’t just about transactions—it’s about building emotional resonance, loyalty, and advocacy over time. Marketing is how we begin the conversation with our future Brand Lovers.
Now let’s break down the tactical expressions of that conversation:
The Strategic Functions of Marketing
- Advertising: Paid amplification of your message. Think reach, repetition, and resonance—at scale.
- Social Media: Digital word of mouth. A pulse check on your tribe and a platform to inspire belief and belonging.
- Publicity: Earned attention. Getting the media to spotlight your story because it matters.
- Public Relations (PR): Managing perception and deepening trust. PR is your brand’s reputation firewall.
- Market Research: Understanding your audience—not just what they do, but why they do it.
- Branding: The soul of your organization expressed consistently. It’s the symbol system that unites your internal culture and external perception.
- Email Marketing: Direct, permission-based access to your customer’s attention. A powerful tool when it respects the relationship.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Visibility when intent is high. It’s where branding meets behavioral psychology.
- Content Marketing: Delivering value before asking for anything in return. Great content builds trust and thought leadership.
- Marketing Automation: Scaling personalization. Efficiency meets empathy.
- Analytics: Turning noise into insight. Let data illuminate—not dominate—decision-making.
Executives don’t need complexity—they need alignment.
They need to know how marketing activates business strategy.
They need to see how it connects to customer intimacy, loyalty, and growth.
So next time someone asks, “What does marketing actually do?”, don’t hand them a 97-slide deck.
Tell them this:
Marketing creates connections. It brings your brand’s promise to life. And when done right, it doesn’t just drive revenue—it builds a following.
And that’s where cult brands are born.