Why the future belongs to Marketing Directors who combine technology with human judgement

For more than three decades, the internet has transformed marketing. Websites, search engines, smartphones, e-commerce, social media, and cloud computing have fundamentally changed how organisations attract, serve, and retain customers.

Today, another transformation is underway.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday business life. It is writing copy, creating images, analysing data, recommending products, answering customer enquiries, and helping managers make decisions. Yet while the technology is changing rapidly, the purpose of marketing has not changed.

Marketing still exists to understand customers better than competitors, build distinctive brands, and generate sustainable, profitable growth, and create value.

The challenge for today’s Marketing Director is therefore not simply adopting AI, but understanding where technology creates advantage, where it creates risk, and where human judgement becomes more valuable than ever.

The more AI can do, the more valuable human judgement becomes.

AI has fundamental implications for what Marketing Directors spend their time doing — and what they should they become better at.

The first digital revolution is over

The first phase of digital marketing focused largely on new channels.

Organisations built websites, invested in search engine optimisation, embraced e-commerce, experimented with social media, and developed increasingly sophisticated digital campaigns. Marketing became faster, more measurable, and more accountable.

These technologies are no longer new. They are now simply part of business.

To lead marketing in a digital and AI world today the challenge is different. Rather than asking, “Which channels should we use?”, Marketing Directors increasingly need to ask:

• How should AI influence our decisions?
• How should data help optimise customer experiences?
• Which technologies genuinely improve competitiveness?
• Where should humans remain firmly in control?

These are leadership questions rather than technical ones.

AI changes the tools, not the purpose of marketing

Much of the discussion surrounding AI focuses on automation and efficiency.

While these benefits are real, they are only part of the story.

The greatest opportunity lies in improving the quality and speed of decision-making.

AI can identify patterns within large volumes of customer data that people may never notice. It can help marketing teams work more productively, generate alternative creative ideas, and pressure-test different scenarios. However, AI has no commercial judgement. It cannot fully understand organisational politics, people, long-term brand reputation, ethics, customer emotions, or strategic priorities. Those remain human responsibilities. Rather than replacing Marketing Directors and CMOs, AI is increasing the importance of leadership.

Technology evolves. Marketing evolves. Leadership matters most

The evolution of marketing leadership can be visualised simply:

Figure 1: The Evolution of Marketing Leadership

Each stage has expanded marketing’s capability. None has reduced the need for leadership. Indeed, the opposite is true. As technology becomes more powerful, organisations need stronger leadership to ensure it is applied responsibly, commercially and in ways that strengthen customer relationships.

Brand building has never been more important

One misconception is that AI will reduce the importance of brands. In reality, it is likely to increase it. As AI systems generate more content, products and recommendations, customers will increasingly seek organisations they know, recognise and trust. Brands communicate reliability, values, and expectations. They reduce uncertainty.

Creating a great customer experience has always been essential. The next challenge is creating distinctive customer experiences that customers remember, recommend and return to.

While technology can help deliver experiences, only organisations can create meaning.

Thus, marketing remains a people business

Perhaps the greatest surprise of the AI era is that emotional intelligence may become even more valuable.

As our recent FTSE 100 research found, Marketing Directors must increasingly work across organisational boundaries, and bring together sales, finance, operations, technology, and customer service in order to improve customer experiences.

Successful leaders build trust. They communicate clearly. They involve and inspire colleagues to solve problems rather than dictate solutions. Technology can accelerate decisions, but people determine whether to accept and implement or reject decisions and thus succeed or not.

Looking to the future

No-one knows precisely how marketing will evolve over the next decade. New platforms will emerge. Search behaviour will continue to change. AI capabilities will become increasingly sophisticated. Customer expectations will continue to rise.

Rather than trying to predict every development, successful Marketing Directors must develop what we describe as early warning radar—to continually scan the market, competitors, customers, and emerging technologies to identify opportunities and threats before others do.

So, remain curious. Challenge assumptions. Test new ideas while remaining grounded in sound marketing principles.

The organisations that succeed are unlikely to be those with the most technology. They will be those that combine technology with better judgement.

What AI cannot do – and what remains the role of the Marketing Director

As AI and digital technologies take on more of the technical and executional work of marketing, some distinctly human capabilities become more—not less—important.

AI doesn’t make all human skills more valuable. It makes particular human capabilities more important where the job is to decide, interpret, challenge, create meaning and influence people. So you need to:

1. Judge what is creatively good

The more AI can do, the more valuable human judgement becomes.

AI can generate huge volumes of copy, images, concepts and campaign ideas. However, generating possibilities isn’t the same as knowing which idea is distinctive, relevant to the customer and right for the brand.

The Marketing Director therefore needs to be able to brief creativity well, challenge it constructively and recognise genuinely strong creative work. Taste, judgement, imagination and the ability to make connections remain human responsibilities.

Your job is to decide:

• Is the idea genuinely distinctive?
• Is it relevant to the customer?
• Does it strengthen the brand?
• Will people notice and remember it?
• Is it commercially worthwhile?
• Is it appropriate for the organisation?

So don’t outsource your creative judgement to AI. But do use AI to increase the number of possibilities you consider — then apply human judgement to choose which is best.

2. Build brands that people actually value

AI can help analyse brand performance and create brand assets. It cannot, by itself, cannot determine the underlying reason why customers prefer a brand. Nor can it decide what a brand should stand for, why customers should care, or how a distinctive position should translate into the experience people actually value.

The marketing leader therefore still needs to understand customers deeply, make difficult choices about positioning and differentiation, and ensure that brand promise and customer experience reinforce one another.

That makes brand judgement a human leadership capability rather than simply another technical marketing task.

3. Understand customers beyond what the data says

AI will make organisations awash with more data, faster. But more data doesn’t automatically produce more insight.

New technology makes it easier to collect, analyse and act on customer data. But customer intent and historic data isn’t the same thing as understanding customer behaviour, and data doesn’t automatically explain why people choose, reject, trust or recommend something.

AI can tell you what customers did. Marketing Directors still need to work out why — and what it means.

So this requires curiosity and empathy: the ability to observe and get close to customers, interpret evidence, ask better questions, understand emotional as well as functional benefits, and recognise what the numbers may not be telling you.

It also requires commercial understanding and the willingness to challenge prevailing views.

And sometimes the most important insight will be something not yet contained in the data.

4. Know when to challenge the machine

The more easily AI can produce an answer, the more important it becomes to ask:

Is this actually right?

AI literacy isn’t the ability to use ChatGPT. It is the ability to know when not to believe it.

The modern Marketing Director needs enough understanding of AI to know:

• what it can and cannot reliably do
• what assumptions it is making
• whether the data or source material is sound
• whether the answer makes commercial sense
• whether it introduces brand, reputational, legal or customer risks
• when human review is essential.

Marketing leaders need to judge the quality, provenance, relevance and consequences of AI-generated output; challenge assumptions; recognise hallucination or bias; protect brand integrity and customer trust; and understand when human expertise must override the machine. So build machine and human stress-testing into your processes.

5. Influence people who do not report to you

If marketing expertise is increasingly distributed across the CEO, Board, customer, commercial, technology and other leadership roles, the Marketing Director cannot simply rely on organisational ownership of marketing to provide influence.

You have to earn it.

You need to explain, influence, manage and lead — our seven essentials — and translate customer and marketing insight into language that the CFO, CIO, CEO, sales leader and Board can act upon.

That means building trust across functions, resolving competing priorities and persuading people who do not report to you.

The Marketing Director increasingly needs to influence the CFO on investment, the CIO on technology, the sales director on customers, the CEO on growth and the Board on risk and opportunity.

That means being able to explain complex things simply, understand other people’s priorities and make a compelling commercial case.

AI can give you information. It cannot build the trust required to persuade the Board to act on it.

6. Decide what matters

Moving forward, Marketing Directors will have more possibilities, more channels, more content, more data, more automation and more AI-generated recommendations than ever before.

The scarce resource becomes attention and prioritisation.

So, to lead marketing in a digital and AI world, the Marketing Director’s job is increasingly to decide what not to do as well as what to do.

• Which customers matter most?
• Which opportunities deserve investment?
• Which data is useful?
• Which AI applications are worth implementing?
• Which channels are distractions?
• Which brand initiatives strengthen the proposition?
• Which projects should stop?

The Marketing Director’s New Advantage

AI will make many marketing tasks faster, cheaper and easier. That doesn’t make the Marketing Director less important. It changes what they are expected to contribute.

The paradox of AI is that as machines become better at doing marketing tasks, human judgement becomes more important in deciding what should be done, and how it should be done.

Competitive advantage will increasingly come from the ability to interpret rather than simply analyse; judge rather than simply generate; understand people rather than simply track behaviour; build brands rather than simply produce content; and influence the organisation rather than simply manage the marketing function.

The future Marketing Director therefore needs to be neither an AI technologist nor a traditional brand manager. They need to be a commercially minded business leader who can combine customer understanding, creativity, brand judgement, data, technology and human influence.

In other words, the Marketing Director’s value is moving further upstream — from doing marketing to deciding what marketing should do, why it should do it and how it should create value for customers and the business.

A practical guide for today’s Marketing Director

The latest edition of The Marketing Director’s Handbook is an in-depth guide to lead marketing in digital and AI world.

Volume 3 – Leading Marketing in a Digital and AI World examines how AI, digital transformation, data, platforms, governance, and leadership are reshaping the Marketing Director’s role. It will help you ask better questions, shape better strategies, and influence and lead wisely across your organisation. It is out now.

For readers seeking a comprehensive marketing guide, our new combined Volumes 1 & 3 edition brings together the enduring principles of marketing strategy and leadership with the latest thinking on digital marketing and artificial intelligence.

Whether you are an experienced Marketing Director, an aspiring CMO, a business leader or a senior marketer preparing for your next role, the fundamentals remain the same.

Technology will continue to evolve.

Marketing will continue to evolve.

The need for thoughtful, commercially-minded marketing leadership has never been greater. So, the future is yours to influence and shape.

The digital age is now over 30 years old, though its consequences became more prevalent due to the emergence of a (non-computer) bug that rampaged the globe in 2020.

The number of digital platforms, their actual usage and time spent online has simply sky-rocketed. At the height of the April 2020 Coronavirus lock-down time spent online rose to 4 hours and 2 minutes a day compared with the mean time spent online in 2019 of just 3 hours and 19 minutes (1).  And linked to this the online proportion of total retail sales also sky-rocketed to nearly 33% compared with less than 20% through the whole of 2019 (May 2020)(3).

It is fair to say that this massive growth caught everyone by surprise except the early digital adopters. They are easily underestimated as nerds, the youth of today or both!

Looking to the future

However, the world will never be the same again. Digital now permeates every aspect of life for every generation of whatever creed or country. Generation Y (so-called Millennials) watched as the digital world erupted around them, and Generation Z were the first generation to live digital lives from birth. The 2020 lock-down embedded the shift to digital. And the children of Millennials (Generation Alpha) are now set to be the most digitally savvy ever (Figure 1).

Dominance of Google and Facebook

But did you know the extent to which Google and Facebook dominate online reach and time spent online? (Figure 2). In the UK, they reached over 95% adults and commanded over 45 minutes and 30 minutes a day respectively. Their dominance is such that a massive 39% of total time is spent on Google-owned media (including YouTube) and Facebook-owned media (including Instagram and Whats App) (4).

And as the public turned online, so has Marketing. As a result, some 57% of total UK advertising expenditure now goes online. Initially and still mostly to Google, who offer certainty of audience reach at a competitive cost and also expertise on the vagaries of search and algorithms. All without the need for a long term commitment to planning or creativity.

Yet their costs have grown and thus the balance of spend has tilted their way at the expense of TV and press, outdoor and public relations, and even other online media. Such that some 78% of online advertising spend, now goes to Google and Facebook (5). However, advertising was not their original nor primary intent, and their advertising and analysis offers are only based on a superficial understanding of marketing. Not for these digital experts the troublesome need to build brands or customer loyalty, but merely to attract clicks.  

However, there are now signs that the emperors’ clothes are wearing thin. Google’s annual minutage fell in 2019 (6), and search advertising revenue appears to be flat-lining. Though Facebook advertising shows continued growth (Figure 3).

Marketing Inspiration for the new normal

So how to manage marketing in the new normal?

While the digital world perpetuated keeping in touch and entertainment in many forms, customer usage also expanded through predictive text and emoji. Because people do what they always do … congregate and gossip, and be amused and saddened. For human nature is what it is.

So building strong brand relationships and customer loyalty remain the bedrock of marketing.

And understanding human nature and their concomitant behaviour is also at the heart of Marketing.

The fundamentals to manage marketing in new normal remain constant as much as change is a constant. It is in embracing change and remaining customer-centric that Marketing is most successful.

The Marketing Director’s role is to understand and exploit the change to benefit their organisation by always staying one step ahead. That’s what successful marketing has always done and must continue to do.

A digital guide for the new normal

To help you stay a step ahead, we’ve now launched Volume 3 of The Marketing Director’s Handbook – Leading Digital and AI Marketing. It helps you understand the changing digital and AI world, ask better questions at Board level, lead digital strategy, govern data and AI risk, and influence and lead wisely across the organisation. Clear, commercially grounded and strategically assertive The Marketing Director’s Handbook – Volume 3 cuts through the hype to answer the questions that define modern marketing leadership.

The Marketing Directors Handbook is available as a one or two volume work from all good bookshops, including Foyles, Waterstones, WH Smith, Blackwells, Amazon, many university bookshops, as well as our own bookshop (with free P&P).

References

1, 2, 5 and 6. OFCOM Online Nation 2020. Base: All adults 18+. This is updated every year.

3. Office of National Statistics May 2020.

4. OFCOM Communications Market Report September 2020. This is also updated every year.

New research by The Marketing Directors to accompany the publication of the latest edition of The Marketing Directors’ Handbook finds that 70% of FTSE 100 companies have meaningful marketing, customer or brand expertise at Board or senior-management level. Within the FTSE 100 companies:

• 0% have a conventional Marketing Director on the main PLC Board
• 11% have a CEO with substantial marketing/customer expertise
• 45% FTSE 100 Boards have substantial marketing expertise beyond the CEO
• 30% have a marketing leader beyond the Board i.e. on the senior management teams
• 38% have additional substantial marketing expertise on the senior management team
• So overall 70% have marketing expertise at Board or senior-management level

Background and Research Objectives

In 2007, Professor Malcolm McDonald conducted research that concluded that just 14 FTSE 100 companies had marketing directors on their Boards. This was widely commented on and perceived at the time to diminish the role and influence of marketing as a profession. We commented on this in Volume 1 of The Marketing Director’s Handbook. So we’ve now researched Britain’s FTSE 100 companies, to answer the question today: where does marketing expertise sit within the leadership of the business, and how far does it influence corporate decision-making?

Six Headline Findings

1. Marketing expertise is everywhere — but the traditional Board Marketing Director has disappeared

The strongest finding from the research is that 70 of the 100 FTSE companies have meaningful marketing, customer or brand expertise either at PLC Board or senior-management level.

The research identifies three overlapping forms of senior marketing influence:

• marketing/customer experience within the PLC Board;
• a senior executive whose principal role is marketing or an equivalent substantial marketing function;
• other senior executives with meaningful marketing, customer or brand expertise.

The picture is that marketing capability is not necessarily concentrated in a single “Marketing Director” but can be distributed between the CEO, Board, Chief Marketing Officer/Chief Customer Officer/Chief Growth Officer and other senior commercial or business leaders.

2. Zero Marketing Directors sit on FTSE 100 PLC Boards

Our analysis identifies 0 of 100 current FTSE 100 companies with a Marketing Director, CMO or equivalent whose formal role places them on the main PLC Board. This contrasts with the 14/100 reported by Professor Malcolm McDonald’s in 2007 (1).

The comparison is striking — and raises the question — why?

The answer lies partly in how corporate leadership has changed.

The statutory Board is no longer a complete map of corporate influence.

The marketing leadership function has not disappeared; it has increasingly moved into broader executive and commercial roles.

3. Marketing experience reaches the CEO

Our research identifies 11 CEOs with substantial marketing, consumer, customer or marketing-led commercial backgrounds.

Some modern CEOs started in marketing, brand, customer or commercial roles and subsequently accumulated broader operational and financial responsibilities. Marketing expertise has therefore become part of a broader general-management skillset.

The routes are diverse. At Tesco, CEO Ken Murphy’s career includes substantial commercial, marketing and brand experience, including global product brand management. Reckitt’s, CEO Kris Licht previously served as President, Health and Chief Customer Officer. At Burberry, CEO Joshua Schulman’s career spans senior brand, merchandising, luxury retail and chief executive roles.

This is significant because it demonstrates that marketing expertise can be a career route to general management and ultimately the chief executive role.

4. Customer-led businesses are the strongest adopters of marketing leadership

The sector analysis is perhaps the strongest corroborating evidence for the overall finding.

The FTSE100 comprises 16 companies classified as consumer/brand-led. 16 (100%) have senior-management marketing/customer expertise; 15 (94%) have Board-level marketing/customer expertise; and 100% have expertise at one or other level. This is an unusually strong concentration.

The result is intuitively credible: in businesses where brands, consumer choice, customer experience, loyalty, pricing, product proposition and competitive differentiation are fundamental business drivers, marketing capability is much more significantly represented within senior leadership.

The travel/hospitality and technology/media/information/digital sectors show a similarly high incidence of senior-management expertise.

At the other end of the spectrum, the incidence is substantially lower in sectors such as energy/resources and financial services.

Marketing leadership is most deeply embedded where customers, brands and competitive differentiation are most central to the business model.

Figure 1: FTSE 100 marketing expertise at Board and senior management level, by sector

5. The Marketing Director is becoming a broader business leader

Our research also identifies over 30 more senior-management marketing leaders operating outside of the Board.

Some have familiar titles: Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing Director, and Chief Customer & Marketing Officer.

Others operate under broader titles incorporating: customer, commercial, growth, data, markets, technology and corporate affairs.

At Sainsbury’s, Mark Given combines technology, marketing and data leadership on the Operating Board. Also at Aviva, Cheryl Toner combines customer and marketing leadership at Group Executive Committee level. While at IHG, the Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer sits on the Executive Committee.

This reveals the changing nature of the discipline. Marketing appears increasingly embedded in broader commercial and customer leadership rather than always operating as a discrete or siloed corporate function.

6. Why has the traditional Board Marketing Director disappeared?

There is no single explanation, and our research does not establish a direct causal link. However, the structure and responsibilities of corporate leadership have changed substantially since 2007.

Boards and management have become more clearly differentiated

The UK Corporate Governance Code now distinguishes the Board’s governance and oversight responsibilities from the management of the business. The FRC’s current guidance emphasises that Boards should determine matters reserved to them while obtaining the information, expertise and advice needed to make effective decisions. The 2024 Code applies from financial years beginning 1 January 2025, with the new Provision 29 applying from 1 January 2026.

Thus a senior executive does not need to be a statutory director to have substantial influence over corporate strategy and performance.

Executive leadership has become an important layer between the Board and the business

Our research found a recognisable Executive, Management or Operating Board — or equivalent — in 86% of companies.

This is where many of today’s senior functional leaders sit.

A CMO, Chief Customer Officer or Chief Growth Officer can therefore have significant responsibility for strategy, investment, customer experience, brand and commercial performance without being a statutory director of the PLC.

The Board’s responsibilities have also broadened

Under Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006, directors must promote the success of the company while having regard to, among other things, long-term consequences, relationships with customers and suppliers, and the company’s reputation.

This means that issues traditionally associated with marketing — customers, relationships, reputation and long-term value — sit within the wider context of Board decision-making.

Thus, there is no requirement per se to give marketing a statutory role on the Board.

Reporting and governance have become more explicit

Large companies have also had to explain, through Section 172 reporting, how directors consider these factors in their decision-making.

Taken together, these developments help explain why the absence of a specialist Marketing Director from the statutory Board does not necessarily indicate the absence of marketing influence.

Conclusions

The traditional Board Marketing Director may have disappeared, but marketing itself has not. What appears to have changed is where marketing expertise sits — increasingly distributed across CEOs, PLC Boards and senior executive management.

In 2007, the presence of a Marketing Director on the PLC Board was an important indicator of marketing’s corporate standing. In 2026, that single measure tells only part of the story.

The evidence suggests that marketing has evolved from a discrete corporate function into a more widely distributed business capability.

The challenge for today’s Marketing Director is therefore not simply to gain a seat at the table, but to demonstrate the customer, commercial, technological and strategic capability to influence the decisions being made around it.

“Three decades ago, marketing was often viewed primarily as a creative or promotional department, and its contribution to business value was frequently misunderstood and under-appreciated. Our experience is that increasing competition and digital disruption have changed that. As markets and products become more commoditised, the ability to understand customer intent, use data and technology intelligently, build distinctive customer experiences and drive growth has made marketing capability increasingly important at executive level.”

“The modern Marketing Director is no longer simply a brand steward. They need to be a commercially minded business leader who can connect customer understanding, marketing expertise, technology and data to business performance.”

Guy Tomlinson, co-author of The Marketing Director’s Handbook

“There is a growing body of research into the relationship between marketing experience at Board level and business performance. We would expect the influence of marketing expertise to extend further as businesses and sectors become more competitive.”

“That is particularly relevant in B2B markets, where marketing has sometimes been less prominent than in consumer-facing businesses. Companies operating with strong sales functions, for example, can add significant value by bringing marketing skills into the wider commercial organisation — developing a deeper understanding of customer needs, markets and demand rather than relying on sales activity alone.”

Tim Arnold, co-author of The Marketing Director’s Handbook

Reference

1. McDonald, M. Professor (2007) Marketing on the Boards of FTSE Companies (researched using Companies House information), Cranfield School of Management (variously cited, though no longer available online)

Further information

The numbers behind the findings (PDF download)
The 2026 FTSE 100 results, definitions and headline comparisons.

Research methodology and evidence (PDF download)
How companies were classified, sources used, limitations and historical methodology

Download the full 2026 FTSE 100 Marketing Leadership Benchmark (PDF)
Full research, numbers and methods on the changing influence of marketing in Britain’s largest companies

If you have questions on our methodology or findings just get in touch.

Brand revitalisation is one of the most challenging tasks facing any marketing leader. It requires sensitivity to heritage, clarity of purpose, and the courage to correct past mistakes. Few case studies illustrate this better than Hull City AFC — a club approaching its 125th anniversary, now undergoing a thoughtful and ambitious transformation under Turkish owner Acun Ilicali, who purchased the club for £20m in January 2022.

Hull City’s journey shows that revitalising a brand is not about cosmetic tweaks. It is about reconnecting with your core audience, strengthening the product, and building a story that resonates emotionally and culturally. For marketing directors, the club’s story offers a rich playbook of what a great brand revitalisation looks like — and what it absolutely should avoid.

1. Heritage is the Foundation of Revitalisation

The Allam era’s (1) attempt to rename the club Hull Tigers remains a textbook example of how not to handle brand change. The backlash was immediate because the proposal ignored the club’s heritage — its name, its identity, and also its connection to the city of Hull.

Heritage is not a constraint. It is a strategic asset.

Under Ilicali, the club has restored its traditional identity, reinforced its connection to Hull, and embraced its history rather than rewriting it. Even the club’s website — now wearehullcity.co.uk — signals a return to authenticity and community.

Brand revitalisation lesson

• Brand revitalisation succeeds when it amplifies heritage, not erases it.
• Names, symbols and stories carry emotional equity that cannot be replaced by novelty.

2. Build on Strengths — Don’t Invent New Ones

The club’s new home shirt, designed with Hull-based partner Oxen, is a masterclass in heritage-led design. Celebrating the 1978–79 season (2), it draws on a period of pride and identity, while the away strip and third strip honour other chapters of the club’s past and city heritage. Personally, I prefer a shirt with a tiger badge – and thankfully that’s arrived in the new ‘away’ strip.

This is revitalisation through continuity — rather than reinvention.

The club describes the new kit as a way for “the city to speak”. And it matters: very few brands are lucky enough to have customers who willingly wear their identity. Football shirts are walking billboards of belonging. They create emotional connection, pride, and also sense of shared story.

Brand revitalisation lesson

• Local partnerships (like Oxen) deepen authenticity and strengthen community ties.
• Revitalisation works when design celebrates identity, though not when it tries to overwrite it.

3. Emotional Connection is the Engine of Brand Revitalisation

Hull City’s recent strategy has focused on rebuilding emotional connection with supporters — a crucial element of any revitalisation effort.

Examples include:

• Flying 500 supporters to Turkey on a Hull City–liveried jet
• Lower ticket prices for youngsters to build the next generation of fans
• A more open, enthusiastic, and human leadership style
• Proactive engagement with fans through supporter panels, Q&As
• Visible pride in the city and its people

These are not gimmicks. They are signals of respect, belonging, and also a shared identity and dream.

Brand revitalisation lesson

• When supporters feel ignored, they become opponents.
• Emotional connection is not a “nice to have” — it is the core driver of revitalisation.
• When customers feel valued, they become brand advocates (and even dip in their pockets in tough times to pay staff wages).

4. The Product Must Improve Alongside the Brand

No brand revitalisation can succeed if the underlying product remains weak. Hull City’s on-pitch progress, and promotion to the Premiership — despite FA restrictions on expenditure — has been impressive. Recruitment has been smart, targeted, and increasingly international (13 hires for the start of the 26/27 season).

The club has also shown courage in making difficult decisions, including changing managers at the start of the 2025–26 season to maintain momentum. These choices demonstrate a commitment to excellence, not sentiment.

Marketing lesson

• Revitalisation fails when the story improves but the experience does not.
• While brand is a promise; proof lies in the pudding or product.

5. Correcting Past Mistakes Is a Strength, Not a Weakness

One of the most powerful aspects of Hull City’s revitalisation is its willingness to acknowledge and correct past missteps. The Allam era’s alienation of supporters, disregard for heritage, and also top-down decision-making damaged trust and attendance.

The new ownership has drawn a clear line under that period.

Marketing lesson

• Revitalisation requires humility.
• Brands must be willing to admit when they got it wrong — and act decisively to fix it.

6. Building an International Brand Through Authentic Synergy

Hull City’s growing international profile is no accident. Ilicali’s ownership of Turkish media assets, and recruitment of Turkish players helped attract a significant overseas following, particularly from Turkey. Further overseas recruitment in 2026, from France, Greece, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Ecuador, Australia and Canada – will further revitalise the brand and extend global appeal.

This is not opportunistic. It is strategic synergy: using media reach, cultural connection, and player recruitment to build a broader and stronger brand footprint.

Brand revitalisation lesson

• Internationalisation works best when it is authentic, not forced.
• Synergy between ownership, media, and product can accelerate global brand reach.

Conclusion: A Club — and Brand — Reborn

Hull City AFC’s revitalisation is still unfolding, but the direction is unmistakably positive. By embracing heritage, improving the product, reconnecting emotionally with supporters, and also building international recognition, the club is demonstrating what great brand revitalisation looks like.For marketing directors, the message is clear:

• Brand revitalisation is not a cosmetic exercise.
• It is a strategic, emotional, and cultural transformation.

Hull City — now over 125 years young — is proving that when you honour your past, invest in your present, and inspire your future, the brand becomes more than a badge. It becomes a movement.

References

(1) Dr. Assem Allam was a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. Born in Egypt, he studied at Hull University in the 1960s, then decided to stay in the City of Hull. His business, Allam Marine, supplies and sells generators and he owned Hull City from December 2010 to January 2022. He also donated to Hull FC, the University of Hull, Hull Truck Theatre Co. and the NHS. He passed away in December 2022.
(2) History of Hull City kits

Ready to strengthen your brand? We help organisations revitalise their identity, sharpen their strategy and tell stories that resonate. Discover more about our brand revitalisation, brand strategy and brand storytelling services.

The role of marketing is to understand customers, create value and drive profitable growth by shaping strategies, guiding innovation and aligning the organisation around customers and their needs. Research from McKinsey, Deloitte, Gartner, the IPA and others consistently shows that organisations with strong marketing capability grow faster, innovate more successfully and also outperform competitors over time.

Why Marketing Matters More Than Ever

Marketing has never been more important to business success. In a world of rapid technological change, rising customer expectations and intense competition, marketing is no longer a communications function — it is the engine of organisational growth.

This article explains the true role of marketing, backed by evidence, and outlines how strengthening marketing capability can transform business performance.

What is the Role of Marketing? (Definition)

Marketing’s role is to understand customer needs, shape strategy, guide innovation and drive profitable growth by creating, communicating and delivering value.

The 7 Seven Core Roles of Marketing in Modern Organisations

1. Customer Insight & Understanding

Marketing identifies customer needs, behaviours, motivations and pain points. This insight informs marketing strategy, innovation, brand development and also customer experience.

Why it matters:

• Customer–centric companies are 60% more profitable (Deloitte) (1).
• Organisations that deeply understand customers innovate more successfully (Harvard Business Review) (2).

2. Market Strategy & Positioning

Marketing defines where to play and how to win — through segmentation, targeting, positioning and value proposition design.

Why it matters: Clear positioning improves differentiation, pricing power and long–term growth (McKinsey)(3).

3. Product & Service Innovation

Marketing shapes propositions based on customer insight, ensuring products and services meet real needs.

Why it matters: Companies that integrate marketing early in product development outperform those that do not (1).

4. Brand Building & Reputation Management

Marketing builds trust, distinctiveness and long–term brand equity — proven to drive profitable growth.

Why it matters: Long–term brand building delivers the highest ROI Ehrenberg–Bass Institute (4) and IPA (5).

5. Demand Generation & Sales Enablement

Marketing creates demand through integrated campaigns, digital channels, content and sales support.

Why it matters: High–performing organisations combine creativity, analytics and purpose — and grow 2.3x faster (McKinsey) (6).

6. Customer Experience & Retention

Marketing ensures consistent, valuable experiences across the customer journey, improving loyalty and lifetime value.

Why it matters: Customer experience is now a key driver of revenue and retention (Forrester) (7).

7. Performance Measurement & Growth Optimisation

Marketing uses data, analytics and experimentation to improve effectiveness and ROI.

Why it matters: Data–driven organisations outperform competitors and allocate budgets more effectively (Gartner)(8).

Why Marketing Matters: Evidence That Marketing Drives Growth

Across industries, research consistently shows that the role of marketing is as a primary driver of growth:

1. Marketing-led companies grow faster

McKinsey finds that companies that combine creativity, analytics and purpose grow revenue 2.3x faster than peers. Marketing is central to this “triple play”, driving customer understanding, innovation and brand strength (3).

2. Customer centric organisations are more profitable

Deloitte reports that customer–centric companies are 60% more profitable (1).

3. Brand building delivers the highest long–term ROI

IPA research shows that long–term brand investment outperforms short–term activation (5).

4. Customer experience drives loyalty and revenue

Forrester finds that improving CX increases loyalty, reduces churn and boosts revenue (7).

5. Distinctive brand assets drive market share

Ehrenberg–Bass research shows that distinctive brand assets increase mental availability and growth (4).

6. Marketing drives innovation success

The Harvard Business Review highlights that marketing–led innovation is more likely to succeed (2).

Together, this evidence demonstrates that marketing is not a cost centre — it is a growth engine.

The Strategic Role of Marketing in Business Success

Marketing is a strategic capability that shapes business success. Organisations with strong marketing functions:

• Grow faster
• Innovate more effectively
• Build stronger brands
• Create more loyal customers
• Outperform competitors over time

Marketing aligns organisations around customer value — the most reliable route to sustainable growth.

Insights from The Marketing Director’s Handbook

Drawing on our own work and research for The Marketing Director’s Handbook, several themes emerge:

• Organisations with strong marketing capability consistently outperform their peers.
• Marketing’s influence increases during periods of uncertainty, when customer understanding becomes critical.
• Many organisations under–invest in marketing capability, limiting growth potential.
• Only a minority of FTSE 100 companies have marketing represented at board level — yet those that do tend to outperform.

These insights reflect decades of hands–on experience working with CEOs, CMOs and leadership teams.

Examples of Marketing’s Impact (Client Success Stories)

1. Consumer Brand Strategy and Innovation

Researching consumers and developing a new communication campaign helped drive a nine-fold sales increase for a product in overlooked consumer markets.

2. Professional Services Repositioning and Communication

Researching and creating a new proposition and communications for a professional educational qualification inspired real growth in students across seven international markets

3. Childrens’ Brand and Marketing Strategy Development

Working collaboratively, engaging consumers and investing in professional marketing inspired a new brand positioning and marketing strategy. As a result this led to a trebling of theatre schools and sales.

If you want to strengthen your organisation’s marketing capability or clarify the role of marketing in your business, we can help. We work with leadership teams to build marketing functions that drive growth, innovation and customer value. So explore our marketing consultancy services or get in touch for an informal conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

References

These sources provide independent evidence of marketing’s impact on business performance.

(1) Deloitte – Customer Centricity Report: https://www2.deloitte.com
(2) Harvard Business Review – Marketing’s Role in Innovation: https://hbr.org
(3) McKinsey – The New Marketing Organisation: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/were-all-marketers-now
(4) Ehrenberg–Bass Institute – Distinctive Brand Assets: https://www.marketingscience.info
(5) IPA – The Long and the Short of It (Binet & Field): https://ipa.co.uk
(6) McKinsey – The Growth Triple Play: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-growth-triple-play
(7) Forrester CX Index: https://www.forrester.com
(8) Gartner CMO Spend Survey: https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/cmo-spend-survey

Creativity is no longer a soft skill. It is a strategic capability. In a world where markets shift overnight, competitors emerge from nowhere, and AI accelerates everything, the ability to think differently is a key business weapon.

Marketing directors sit at the crossroads of customer insight, brand strategy, commercial growth, and innovation. That makes them uniquely placed to lead creativity across the organisation. Yet many still rely on ad-hoc brainstorming or outdated workshop formats that generate more Post-it notes than real breakthroughs.

This long-form guide reframes creativity as a repeatable, teachable, commercially focused discipline—supported by proven creativity techniques, modern frameworks, and the structured processes outlined in The Marketing Director’s Handbook, Chapter 21, Creativity and Problem Solving.

So, if you want to generate better ideas, solve bigger problems, and lead your organisation’s innovation agenda, this is your playbook.

Why Creativity Is Now a Core Business Weapon

The pace of change has accelerated dramatically. Entire categories can be reshaped in months, not years. The companies that thrive—Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla, Monzo—are those that continually reimagine customer value.

History is littered with businesses who failed to grow, because they failed to see a problem coming or failed to think differently. Today’s cautionary tales include:

• Twitter/X losing advertiser trust
• Meta pivoting to the metaverse too early
• Peloton misreading post-pandemic demand
• WeWork collapsing under flawed assumptions

Creativity techniques help marketing directors anticipate change, reframe challenges, and unlock new growth opportunities.

AI has levelled the playing field

When everyone has access to the same data, dashboards, and automation tools, creativity becomes the differentiator.

Customers expect constant innovation

So brands must continually refresh:

• value propositions
• experiences
• content
• service models

Creativity techniques provide the fuel.

Creativity reduces risk

While counterintuitive, it is true. Structured creativity techniques help teams:

• explore more options
• test assumptions
• uncover blind spots
• pressure-test ideas early

Creativity is not a recipe for chaos or just a personality trait, it is a process of disciplined exploration.

Creativity Skills Can Be Learned—By Anyone

While creativity was once just the domain of “the creatives”, today it is a leadership capability. Creative ideas can be generated by anyone … simply using creativity techniques or tools and creating the right conditions for creativity to flourish.

Creativity techniques are structured thinking tools that help teams generate ideas, uncover insights, and also solve complex business problems. In a world where markets shift weekly and competitors emerge overnight, creativity is no longer a “nice to have”—it provides strategic advantage.

Modern creativity is:

• cross-functional (marketing, R&D/product, sales, ops, finance working together)
• hybrid (in-person + digital collaboration)
• AI-augmented (ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, Gemini, etc.)
• customer-collaborative (guided by insights and behavioural information, and to assist in identifying and developing ideas)

And marketing directors are the natural orchestrators.

The Three Core Thinking Modes Behind Creativity Techniques

1. Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Possibilities

Divergent thinking is the engine of idea generation. It asks: “What are all the ways we could solve this?” It as a process where “a problem directly inspires many new solutions.”

When marketing directors can use divergent thinking:

• Generating campaign ideas
• Exploring new customer segments
• Reimagining brand positionings
• Identifying new product or service opportunities
• Brainstorming growth strategies

Modern divergent creativity techniques include:

• SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse)
• Crazy 8s
• AI-assisted brainstorming (generate 100 ideas in minutes)
• Random stimulus (images, objects, words)
• What-if scenario generation
• Forced connections

Figure 1: Divergent Creativity Techniques

Divergence is about quantity, not quality. You want volume, variety, and velocity.

2. Linear (Sequential) Thinking: Reframing the Problem

Linear thinking is the art of breaking down a challenge and reassembling it in new ways. Thus it is both analytical, a source of insight and inspiration.

For example, by reframing a problem, or changing the conditions surrounding the problem, makes it easier to solve. In the instance of a challenge “to hydrate skin”, this could be reframed as a challenge to hydrate another part of the body,  whole body or another object . Or to re-express “hydration”, for example, as a exposure or immersion in, a waterfall, dew, rain, snow, sand, wind etc.  Re-expression requires each part of the problem to be delineated and expressed individually. Then for the individual elements to be analysed and recombined in new ways. 

When marketing directors can use linear thinking:

• Diagnosing brand problems
• Breaking down complex problems
• Reframing challenges
• Identifying root causes
• Mapping customer journeys
• Structuring insight development

Modern linear creativity techniques include:

• Jobs to Be Done analysis (JTBD)
• Design Thinking
• Insight laddering
• Customer problem trees
• AI-powered pattern recognition
• Re-expression frameworks

Figure 2: Example Linear (Sequential) Thinking Technique: Reframing

Linear thinking is the bridge between insight and idea.

3. Convergent Thinking: Selecting the Best Ideas

Marketing Directors can reverse convergent thinking to analyse a series of options and determine which is best. This is where creativity becomes commercial.

When marketing directors can use convergent thinking:

• Prioritising ideas
• Evaluating feasibility
• Assessing commercial impact
• Aligning stakeholders
• Building business cases

Modern convergent creativity techniques include:

• Impact vs. Effort/Cost matrices
• RICE scoring (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort)
• Feasibility-Desirability-Viability analysis
• AI- assisted idea scoring
• Dot or simple voting

Figure 3: Example Convergent Thinking Technique (Impact vs. Effort/Cost Matrix)

Top Creativity Techniques Every Marketing Director Should Master

• SCAMPER
• Design Thinking
• Jobs to Be Done
• Six Thinking Hats (Edward De Bono)
• TRIZ
• Mind Mapping
• Insight Laddering
• Reverse Brainstorming
• Forced Connections
• Customer Journey Mapping
• Value Proposition Canvas
• AI-assisted ideation and evaluation

Many of these techniques appear in Chapter 21 of The Marketing Director’s Handbook, which provides step-by-step guidance on how to apply them in real business contexts.

How to Run a High-Impact Creativity Workshop

Here is a contemporary, high-impact format used by leading marketing teams:

1. Define the challenge

Be clear, insight-led, customer-centred, seek multiple views

2. Warm-up exercise

To break cognitive patterns, remove from day-to-day e.g. “You are a Martian, so what do you need … “

3. Divergent idea generation

Use 2-3 techniques with different group dynamics (SCAMPER, random stimulus, AI prompts)

4. Cluster and theme ideas

Group by customer need, behaviour, opportunity space or type

5. Convergent evaluation

Use impact vs. effort or cost matrices, feasibility scoring, RICE

6. Build, prototype or storyboard

Develop and visualise the top ideas

7. Assign responsibilities and next steps

Creativity without ownership and execution is theatre!

Marketing Inspiration

Creativity is not magic. It is a method.

Marketing directors who master creativity techniques don’t just generate better ideas—they build more innovative teams, more resilient brands, and more future-proof businesses. Marketing directors should rise to the challenge to lead creativity across the business because:

1. Marketing is a a natural creativity engine

Today, marketing also understands and leads:

• customers
• brand meaning
• communication
• commercial impact

Together with their (your) understanding of different parts of the business and culture, this makes marketers natural leaders of creativity.

2. Creativity is essential for navigating change

From multichannel experience, to product, sustainability and AI, creativity elevates ideas and provides the glue that powers change programmes and also holds transformation together.

3. Creativity is a team sport

No one has a monopoly on good ideas. Talent is everywhere, and everyone has some innate creativity within them, so use it. Modern creativity requires:

• cross-functional collaboration
• hybrid workshops
• customer understanding and co-creation
• AI-human ideation loops

Marketing directors can orchestrate all of this.

Further Reading

1. The Marketing Director’s Handbook, Chapter 21: Creativity and Problem Solving — a comprehensive guide to processes, techniques, and workshop design.
2. Mycoted: 192 Creativity Techniques — a rich directory of tools and methods.
3. IDEO: Design Thinking resources.
4. Clayton Christensen: Competing Against Luck (Jobs to Be Done). 

Product innovation is the lifeblood of many businesses. In fast-moving markets, new products can contribute over 50% of annual sales, though in technology sectors, this figure can be much higher. Yet, despite the critical importance of innovation, many products fail. Why? More importantly, what can you do to ensure success? Here are seven enemies of product innovation—identify and eliminate them to stay ahead.

1. Failure to Identify or Meet a Consumer Need

Research suggests that 75% of product failures occur because they do not address a real consumer need (1). This is particularly common in technology markets, where new features are often introduced without clear evidence of demand.

Even the now-iconic Sony Walkman initially struggled. Consumers asked, “Why do I need a portable tape player when I have one at home?” Only when Sony repositioned the product as a way to enhance mood and lifestyle did it take off.

To succeed, products must:

• Solve a real problem or create a new desire.
• Differentiate from competitors.
• Convert consumer needs into wants through branding and positioning.

2. Cultural Myopia – “We’ve Always Done It This Way”

Success can lead to complacency. Companies that resist change often fall victim to disruption—just ask Borders (overtaken by Amazon) or Kodak (slow to adopt digital photography).

To combat this:

• Encourage independent innovation teams.
• Involve external consultants for fresh perspectives.
• Foster a culture that rewards experimentation and calculated risk-taking.

3. Lack of Creativity in Product Innovation

Creativity fuels innovation, yet many businesses mistakenly believe only a select few can be creative. In reality, creativity is a skill that can be nurtured.

Try these strategies:

• Reframing – Look at challenges from a different angle.
• Breaking industry rules – Challenge conventional wisdom.
• Cross-industry learning – Draw inspiration from other sectors (e.g., how Formula 1 pit stops influenced hospital efficiency).
• Consumer co-creation – Involve customers early to spark new ideas.

4. Lack of Time, Determination, or Due Process

Product innovation is not a one-time event—it’s a process requiring patience and persistence. The famous Post-it Notes took 12 years from discovery to commercial success. Without 3M scientist Spence Silver’s unwavering belief in his “weak glue” and Art Fry’s application idea, the product may never have made it.

Best practices for sustaining innovation:

• Allocate dedicated time for brainstorming and iteration.
• Follow a structured innovation pipeline to test and refine ideas.
• Maintain a portfolio approach, knowing that product innovation is partly a numbers game, and not all ideas will succeed (2).
• Use agile methodologies to prototype, test, and iterate quickly.

5. Lack of Teamwork

While lone inventors often get credit for breakthroughs, most successful innovations are the result of teamwork. Collaboration ensures diverse thinking and strengthens execution.

Examples of teamwork-driven innovation:

• Apple’s iPhone – A result of seamless collaboration across hardware, software, and design teams.
• Pixar’s success – A creative culture where ideas are shaped by collective input.
• Virgin Atlantic’s launch – A result of Richard Branson’s ability to unite aviation experts, customer service leaders, and brand visionaries.

So encourage cross-functional collaboration to improve problem-solving and execution speed.

6. Lack of Brand Understanding or Vision

Great brands don’t just sell products; they create emotional connections. Understanding your brand’s strengths can unlock new opportunities.

Brand extension or innovation successes:

• Caterpillar – Originally known for construction vehicles, it leveraged its rugged identity to extend its brand into footwear, clothing, and toys.
• Sony – In the 1950s, the company set a vision to “change perceptions of Japanese goods worldwide.” Today, Sony is synonymous with innovation and quality.
• Mr. Clean (Flash in the UK, Monsieur Propre in France) – Initially a household cleaner, the brand extended into car washing.

A clear brand vision ensures innovations align with consumer expectations and business goals.

7. Lack of Customer Involvement

Ignoring customer input can be a fatal mistake. While some creative industries fear that consumer research “dumbs down” ideas, the truth is that consumers can enhance innovation when engaged correctly.

Ways to involve customers:

• Crowdsourcing – LEGO allows fans to submit designs, turning top-voted ideas into real products.
• Beta testing – Tech companies like Google and Apple rely on user feedback before launching updates.
• Community-driven innovation – Brands like Starbucks use platforms like “My Starbucks Idea” to gather and implement customer suggestions.

Engaged consumers don’t just provide feedback—they help create the next big thing.

Marketing Inspiration for Product Innovation

To drive successful product innovation, keep these principles in mind:

1. Establish a flexible innovation process – Adapt it based on challenges and market conditions.
2. Generate lots of ideas and let them evolve – Nurture concepts before dismissing them.
3. Consult diverse stakeholders – No single person has a monopoly on great ideas.
4. Use creativity techniques – Encourage lateral thinking to spark new possibilities.
5. Engage customers early – They can contribute to both idea generation and validation.

By slaying these seven enemies of product innovation, you can dramatically increase your chances of success.

For more insights on The Marketing Directors’ approach to creative market research, product innovation and brand strategy, get in touch.

References

(1) Cooper, Robert G. Winning at New Products, 1993
(2) Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), www.pdma.org, 1991. The PDMA found that ten serious ideas or concepts are needed to bring one product to market successfully.

The difference between an average marketing director and a successful marketing director is not creativity, digital expertise or communications skills. It is the ability to drive business growth, influence strategic decisions and create customer value. So, after working with marketing leaders for more than 40 years, we’ve found that successful marketing directors consistently excel in seven areas

What does a successful marketing director do?

A successful marketing director does far more than manage campaigns and communications. They help shape business strategy, identify growth opportunities, build strong brands, improve customer experiences, and guide investment decisions. Ultimately they also ensure marketing activity delivers profitable growth.

The best marketing directors operate as business leaders first and marketers second. They understand customers, competitors, finance and organisational dynamics, and use that knowledge to influence decisions across the entire business.

Seven essentials to be a successful marketing director

1. Successful marketing directors lead through influence

In practice, organisations and Boards work collaboratively to set and achieve goals. They also work logically and unemotionally. A Board will want to know WHAT can be achieved, HOW this can be achieved (and for how much) and WHEN. So, view yourself as a strategic leader, a member of a team, and set out to understand and support your colleagues. As a strategic leader, help to set the direction and tempo for the organisation with energy and positivity. All gives extra credibility to explain, influence, manage and lead.

2. Successful marketing directors champion customer understanding

The most successful companies on the planet are marketing-or-customer-driven. However, non-marketing colleagues often misunderstand what marketing is all about. Thus, initially you need to be a disciple of marketing. This means espousing the benefits of understanding customers, their needs, and helping your colleagues focus your business activities to meet those needs. To do this you need to embrace and encourage a way of thinking – from the customers’ point of view. Do this by employing research to understand customers; who they are, how they think, their needs, and what motivates them.

3. Successful MDs build the organisation’s competence in creating, managing and leveraging brands as strategic assets

If the marketing director is not leading brand strategy, nobody else will. Finance can measure value. Operations can deliver value. However, only marketing can define and build brand value. This challenge is not to be under-estimated because if colleagues rarely understand customers, their needs, and how to meet them, it is probable they won’t understand brands. So this is where you must lead, and can add substantial value. This starts with helping your colleagues understand what brands are, and why bother? How they add value to an organisation, and the implications in so doing. It also involves helping them understand the difference between products and services and brands. And the difference between rational and emotional needs and benefits, and how distinctive features and benefits, lead to more appealing products and services.

With service brands, it also involves aligning the activities and behaviours of an entire organisation behind a common goal and vision.

4. Successful marketing directors use their creative skills to solve problems

The fact that marketers are creative provides a springboard to use your skills to benefit the entire organisation. So get out there, and use your creative skills to solve pressing problems.

Creativity is about making new connections. And while some people are naturally creative (we call it right-brained), and some logical (left-brained), creativity is also teachable. It is also fueled by simple processes, for example, bringing together diverse groups and using the right creativity tools.

There is one further tip which takes no effort but amazingly works every time: sleep on it. There is a Darwinian explanation why solutions and decisions always come better after a good night’s sleep. So trust your instincts.

5. Successful MDs champion marketing technical excellence

Marketing initiatives usually fail for one of three reasons: the initiative doesn’t meet consumer needs, or alternatively poor strategy or implementation.

Marketing superiority comes from all of these things and marketing is a differentiator in its own right. So remember the devil is in the detail and pay attention to this.

This is particularly the case in the digital world. So learn and stay ahead of new technology, and understand what works and what doesn’t.

6. Successful MDs act as the eyes and ears of their business

Organisations today are awash with data but less so with insight, a clear reading on opportunities. This is because organisations are often compromised by their internal structures and cultures; “this is the way we do things”.

We’ve already discussed the importance of understanding customers, and that this is key to a marketing director’s remit. However, there are also significant opportunities in understanding customers and their behaviours not just today but in the future.

Thus it is opportune for marketing directors to act as your organisation’s early warning radar and external conscience. While others look inward, marketing must constantly monitor customers, competitors, technology and market shifts. So set up systems to gather and maintain intelligence on customer trends, competitive threats and market opportunities.

Also bring together and establish marketing dashboards to measure key information and monitor progress towards your goals. Then you’ll better see the big and small picture and better shift the corporate tiller to grasp new opportunities.

7. Successful marketing directors understand and manage customer and financial metrics

Every board asks the same question: “What return are we getting from this investment?”

Successful marketing directors therefore understand:

• Customer acquisition cost
• Customer lifetime value
• Market share
• Brand awareness
• Conversion rates
• Marketing ROI
• Profit contribution

The ability to connect marketing activity to commercial outcomes is often what separates future CMOs from career marketers.

The biggest mistake marketing directors make

Many aspiring marketing directors believe success comes from simply mastering digital marketing.

Digital expertise is important, but it is not what earns influence at board level.

Boards value leaders who:

• Grow revenue
• Improve profitability
• Reduce risk
• Build enduring customer relationships
• Create sustainable competitive advantage

The most successful marketing directors therefore combine customer understanding, strategic thinking, leadership and commercial acumen.

Frequently asked questions

The Marketing Director’s Handbook – A Unique Guide to the Role

Our mission is to help businesses everywhere better understand and employ marketing as a driver of business growth. In particular, to help aspiring and current marketing directors and chief marketing officers be successful marketing directors.

The Marketing Director’s Handbook is is the definitive guide for successful marketing. It is a truly unique book and structured to guide on all of the key activities that a successful marketing director and chief marketing officer must undertake. Throughout it provides insights and practical pointers that are easy to understand and act on rather than a compendium of case studies. Volume one is the original definitive guide, volume two focuses on managing digital marketing, and volume three focuses on leadership in an AI and digital world. The books are available as individual or combined editions. Keep them close for easy reference!

Read the reviews and what’s inside The Marketing Director’s Handbook. And find copies at all good bookstores including Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Waterstones and Foyles.

This article discusses what brand extension strategy to choose to best build your brand. To bring to life the options we also share insights from some really iconic brands.

Early brand extensions

In 1881, Rowntree launched Fruit Pastilles, and in 1893, Fruit Gums. Their success with fruit products subsequently allowed the business to launch a series of chocolate products, including chocolate beans (1882).

However, through the early 1900s, Rowntree struggled to make milk chocolate of comparable quality to market leader, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

In the 1931, George Harris was appointed marketing manager for chocolate products. He mined his knowledge of marketing, advertising and consumer research and built on his experiences in the American market. In 1935 he launched Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp. This was renamed KitKat in 1937 (Figure 1). Today there are over 200 KitKat brand extensions, though mainly flavour variants.

Subsequently he also transformed Rowntree’s Chocolate Beans into Smarties.  Brand extensions available today include large size Smarties, Fruity Smarties, and ice cream Smarties  (including McFlurry versions).  As a result of his successes, Harris became Rowntree’s company Chairman in 1941. And he is now recognised as one the fathers of modern marketing (Figure 2).

Figure 2: George Harris – The Father of Modern Marketing

Reasons for extending brands

There are two principal reasons to extend brands.

First, they help grow market penetration or share within a market.

Second, they help strengthen reputation (i.e. brand positioning).

Alternative brand extension strategies

Figure 3 summarises the benefits of alternative brand extension strategies.

Extending brands in existing markets or to existing customers requires brands to sell more to customers, for example via new size variants.

To attract new customers with existing products requires the identification of new customer segments or new market categories for example via new flavour variants.

Strengthening brand reputation to existing customers demands brand repositioning. Strengthening rational and/or emotional benefits improves value perceptions, and value share. A famous example of this type of strategy in action is the repositioning and repackaging of Lucozade from a brand that aided recovery, to a sports drink in 1983.

The fourth type of brand extension strategy both attracts new customer segments and involves reputation change. This option provides the strongest case for launching a new new brand rather than extending an existing one. The KitKat example discussed earlier evidences how a new new brand better helped Rowntree successfully build a bridgehead in chocolate confectionery.

The further a new brand extension proposition is from the original or core brand the greater the risk and potential opportunity as in effect you are creating new markets (Figure 3).

What brand extension strategy to choose?

So is it better to extend a brand, or launch a new brand? Here’s a summary of the pros and cons of each strategy (Figure 4). Net extending an existing brand benefits from the existing awareness and equity a brand has in a market. This strategy was originally employed by Procter & Gamble when launching the first ever combined shampoo and conditioner product – Vidal Sassoon Wash & Go.

How to extend your brand?

There are two principal ways; either a brand extension push vs. brand vision ‘pull’ innovation strategy

Brand extension through evolution from a core

Boots No7, launched in 1935 as a retailer own skin care brand. Though colour cosmetics followed and took off in the post war years (3). The brand has since had many make-overs; both changes in livery (blue, terracotta, brown, grey, black etc), and many brand extensions.  In 1971, the decision was made to build an independent brand, repositioning it as a fashion brand, though exclusive to Boots.  Product innovations added to the equity, with (Special Collection) Positive Action Cream (1980) (designed to compete with upscale skin care brands), and in 2007, No7 hit the jackpot with Protect & Perfect Serum. A BBC Horizon documentary declared it the only product on the market to have proven anti-ageing effects. It caused a storm in Boots’ aisles with stock selling out in just two weeks. Today ‘Protect and Perfect’ is a sub-brand extension in its own right; it’s even available at Amazon (Figure 5).

This requires clear brand understanding; on the nature of the brand equity, and its strengths and weaknesses, in order to build on or refresh those strengths, and eliminate any weaknesses.  

Brand extension through delivering a vision

Olay (or Oil of Ulay, Olaz, or Ulan) as it was originally known, launched in South Africa in 1952 (4). A pink beauty lotion, it was promoted as ‘the secret of younger looking skin’, becoming global category leader.  In 1985, while largely a single product brand, it was  clearly perceived as ‘for younger looking skin’, and thus P&G acquired the brand. They then invested significantly in R&D, to create a raft of brand extensions to better deliver the said promise. Today brand extensions include Complete, Total Effects, ProX, Regenerist, Regenerist Luminous, Classics, Fresh Effects, Body (North America) and White Radiance (Asia).  They include range of ingredients to deliver against the desired claims: including a broad spectrum sunscreen,  retinyl propionate (a vitamin A derivative), glycerin, niacinamide (vitamin B3), and amino peptides.

This primarily requires a clear vision for the brand in customer’s minds, then rigorous innovation, perhaps though new technology, or new ways of thinking, to deliver that vision. Thus a more substantive step change is possible. Of course, understanding and building on the core equity also helps too.

Lessons learned from other brand innovations

Gucci brand extensions

Gucci started out making saddles for wealthy horsemen in Tuscany in 1921 (5). Impressed by some of the luggage he saw guests with at luxury hotels, he then employed fine leather craftsmen, and the latest machinery, to make luggage. Then over time setting up stores to reach elite customers. Clothing followed as did the iconic double GG logo on belt buckles in 1964. As the company established a reputation for classic Italian style and luxury, it prospered through the 1970s. While ups and downs followed, the hiring of a strong creative, Tom Ford, in 1990 to design a ready-to-wear collection, took the company to new heights. Most recently the brand extended into homeware and decoration (Figure 6). Delivering a great online and social media brand experience has also inspired further growth.

Caterpillar brand extensions

Caterpillar Inc. (sometimes shortened to CAT) is the world’s biggest manufacturer of construction equipment. The name dates from the merger of two other companies in 1925; one of whom Holt, whose tractors were used to haul guns in World War 1. During World War 2 their trucks also found fame with the US Navy who used them to build military bases. Since the 1950s the company has grown through a series of related product acquisitions, bringing them all products, under the Caterpillar name.

By the late 20th century, its distinctive yellow livery, Caterpillar was synonymous with reliability, durability and technology.  In 1994, therefore, via a carefully controlled licensing programme, Caterpillar extended the brand to a selected range of merchandise. Originally and most famously boots. The footwear sector has boomed since, and remained the most successful consumer product licensing segment to date. In the late 90s, Caterpillar also issued its first watch license, to Catwatches.com (CAT calls them rugged timepieces), and in 2016, to mobile phones.

Walt Disney brand extensions

Walt Disney, a shy yet visionary man, famously created his first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie in 1928 (4). It featured what was to become the world’s best known mouse.  In 1935, he went on to create the first full length, animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In 1955, he opened the world’s first amusement park, Disneyland (in Anaheim, Los Angeles). To fund this he also diversified into TV programmes, including the Mickey Mouse Club, and live action movies. By the mid 1960s, when Walt Disney died he’d set high standards, instilled strong beliefs in, and established a clear vision for the company, “to make the world happy”.

This vision has guided Disney’s “imagineering” since.  You can learn from this too. It means that Mickey Mouse management isn’t a joke – but a ticket to business success.

Marketing Inspiration

1. Brands grow and extend arise through both evolution (from a core brand promise) and revolution (to achieve a brand vision). Ultimately, reinforcing clear customer perceptions, and thus an ability to answer the question – “what does the brand stand for”? (Figure 8)

2. Great brands, and brand extensions, offer both strong, and distinctive rational and emotional benefits. Thus, don’t underestimate the importance of the latter. Especially as it means people pay more.

3. Successful brand development springs from many sources; a strong creative leader, visionaries, or a strong brand belief system. All fuel a clearer, almost obsessive, sense of direction.

4. Don’t think narrowly i.e. within a market segment, to extend a brand. However, do think logically and laterally, to understand customers, and their brand perception, to uncover an insight that gives a sense of direction.

5. You are more likely to reveal extraordinary brand extension ideas, through a culture of innovation. It’s also possible to create a culture of innovation by hiring or bringing together folk, who are not hidebound by their previous experience. Virgin Atlantic, for example, was established by a team with no initial airline experience.

6. Don’t cannibalise your own sales unless you are making more money i.e. gaining higher margins.

7. Beware of a stretch too far, unless innovation, and risk taking is part of your brand equity. As is the case for fashion brands, and corporate investment companies, who aim to create new brands, and sell them on quickly.

References

1. The Rowntree Society

2. Sébastien Jaulent, Katia Luxin, and Yna Sacko, Dissertation on ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Brand Extension Strategy for Companies’

3. No7 Beauty https://www.no7beauty.co.uk/about-us/

4. Olay – Our History https://olay.co.uk/olay-promise/our-history

2. Gucci –  https://Gucci.com

3. Caterpillar timelines https://Caterpillar.com

4. Capodagli Bill, Jackson Lynn, The Disney Way – Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company  (1988)

It seems that world economies follow a never ending series of boom and bust. Just when we thought global economies stable and productivity improving along come new challenges. First Covid-19 (2020), and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022), and all that goes with it, including the rise of energy and food prices. However, when dealing with tough times, and particularly recession, if you face declining or flat sales, how do you grow your business? So do you plan cautiously or aggressively? In all situations marketers have a key role to play and you have a choice to view your glass as half-full or half-empty. Here are seven pointers to successful business growth:

1.   Be more vigilant to threats and opportunities

Information is a source of competitive advantage. While tough times present threats, they also present opportunities – a lower cost investment opportunity here, or opportunity to take out a competitor there. Rarely will there be greater opportunities for a smart marketing and research department to prove its worth. So understand changing market forces and customer needs and provide timely intelligence and quality thinking to spot new opportunities. There are many ways to do this. Firstly, empower your sales team to fact-find, talk to, or research customers. Also track media activity on trends and what your competitors are doing; read investment blogs and company reports too. Then take this intelligence, and use scenario planning to think through how markets might evolve, and devise strategies to survive or thrive in each circumstance. This is something most successfully undertaken by Shell to address turbulent oil prices.

2.   Ensure your business fundamentals are sound

The most successful businesses are those that are the most customer or audience driven. So if tough times impede your sales, this most likely indicates a weakness in your offer which needs to be fully understood and addressed.  So first check your market share, and if that has fallen too, it suggests you need to do more to compete. However, whatever the economic situation, clear insights must inform what you do. Your startpoint is to ensure a strong product offer. Then with a sound marketing strategy in place you’ll be in a good position to invest and grow.

3. Reassess your product and brand portfolio

A consequence of the present inflationary times, is that mortgage costs are rising, and so are savings rates. But these changes affect people differently. Those with their disposable income under pressure will behave differently to those who are ‘flush’. For example, they will be more motivated to save money (energy) by switching lights off and perhaps going to bed earlier. Whereas those who are more flush may be more willing to invest for the longer term, by investing in low-energy lighting or extra home insulation.

Fast moving consumer goods are typically the first markets to experience change in buying behaviour. Those under financial pressure may shop around more, switch to cheaper outlets, and buy own label products instead of brands. Those who are more ‘flush’ may pay more to feel better.

The purpose of this discussion is not to predict behaviour but merely to spotlight the ease and speed with it changes. Your challenge is therefore to anticipate and understand change, and react quickly.

4.   Maximise cash

The trigger for business closure is usually lack of cash. As evidenced by the recent administration of much lauded battery manufacturer, British Volt which has just been bought out by new Australian owners. Of course, cash management is the responsibility of all, but as this is a marketing blog, let’s focus on what marketers can do. One opportunity is to devise strategies to bring forward and maximise cash flows, for example, by rewarding early payment. Another is to reduce marketing costs. So seek out more efficient ways to communicate. In a worst-case situation, devise ways to rationalise your team. View change as an opportunity to ‘right-size’. Consider what roles are ‘must’ and ‘nice-to-have’. Also, make sure that the right resources are in the right places and perhaps refresh the culture. This then provides a more robust foundation to on which to build, invest and probe for renewed growth.

5.   Don’t stop promoting your products but do be smarter about how you do it

Some studies that show how the share of advertising voice correlates with market share. There is also evidence to suggest that those who invest in proactive marketing during tough times are the first to emerge from the tough times. Also that they emerge the strongest. So optimise and promote the benefits of your products, and use creativity to maximise those benefits. If you focus on building your brand you’ll help avoid creating a hostage to fortune.

6.   Invest while advertising bargains abound

The media market is in a state of perennial flux. As the share of one declines, often does the cost per impression, rating point or click. So shop around for advertising bargains. Over the last two decades promotional spend has shifted to digital media, most notably, Google and Facebook. Often when data to justify return on investment has been sparse. However, their recent declines in advertising income suggests their bubble is bursting. As money shifted to digital, other mainstream media such as television and radio became relatively better value. New kids offering better value propositions such as TikTok have also joined the block too.

7.   But manage the risks!

Of course there are risks. But think big, and cultivate a mindset of controlled aggression to mitigate the risks. So test, and test your way from low cost to higher cost business building initiatives. Though only when you are sure that investments work, and have the metrics to prove it, should you invest heavily.

Marketing Inspiration

1. How to grow your business starts with good consumer understanding, and a good product. Then profitable product promotion.
2. So build your business, product and brand strategies on facts by using robust market research. Also make sure you your have processes in place to identify opportunities and threats. Then you’ll be better equipped to, and more timely in making investment recommendations to your Board.
3. Focus your resources on making sure your products are as fit and competitive as possible to compete in their niches. Because Darwinist fundamentals apply.
4. Then, when promoting your products, carpe diem. Take a long and short term view on payback, but make sure you earn more than you spend. To do this, don’t just follow the herd, seek out lower cost marketing opportunities. In so doing you will be able to grow your business while others are worrying or sitting on their laurels.

For personal advice and support on how to grow your business just give us a call.

Evolution of products vs brands

Product recognition is a marketing fundamental. But what really is the difference between products vs brands? The early brands used marks like the red triangle of BASS beer. This was actually a symbol of strength similar to Castlemaine XXXX or Wadworth 6X (Figure 1). Others from Ford to Kellogg to Boots used the simple signature of the owner. These were the first differentiators that enabled products evolve into brands.

Products that are named and recognisable in design and packaging can then be recalled by their qualities, properties, and attributes and benefits. This is all very logical so far ….

Brands add ‘values’ and value

Yet brands also convey ‘values’ – the importance, worth, utility or usefulness of something (1). They build an image or perceptions in the customer’s eyes. In turn they also build a relationship based on emotions of trust and care, responsibility, and respect. Elevating products to brands involves working out what makes them different and better. This process is called brand positioning.

Benefits of brands

Compared with products, brands are more distinctive, and build stronger relationships with customers. In turn they are more valued and valuable. Simply adding more products under the umbrella of the brand also has many attractions. We call this brand extension. In today’s particularly fragmented and targeted media environment, it adds weight to messaging, and scale to business.

Pitfalls to avoid

So make sure that brand values match product performance. Especially in both technical and service sectors. A single poor experience in a restaurant will lower the brand reputation across the entire chain.

This is a problem that befell airplane manufacturer Boeing. When their much-vaulted new plane, the Boeing 737 Max, fell out of the sky it took two years to sort out. The planes underwent final stages of airworthy certification. And Ryanair have now ordered over 200. However, they are no longer named Max (Figure 2). They are now named the Boeing 737-8200.

Marketing Inspiration

So to summarise the difference between products vs brands. Brands are a value-added subset of products and services. All brands are either products or services. However, not all products and services are brands. This is because products and services are typically more generic. Whereas brands have a good awareness, a distinctive image and a stronger emotional connection with consumers. Thus they command premium prices and the strongest brands command higher share prices, reflecting their higher earnings multipliers over the also rans.

So be clear about the difference between products vs brands. And manage the risks and invest accordingly.

References

(1). Oxford English Dictionary. While the word ‘values’ is useful to a point, it is also a somewhat vague term. And thus we prefer the more specific concepts of benefits, personality traits, beliefs and behaviours to understand and describe brands. They are more powerful to develop brand strategies.