Better Marketing Through Smarter Decisions: A Practical Guide for Marketers and Leaders

Editor's Notes

• #1 Thanks Rob, and thanks to The Digital Maze for inviting me. I want to begin with a bit of a confession. I have worked in marketing for around 20 years, but I don’t have a marketing degree and only one basic marketing qualification. I learned through clients, campaigns, teams, agencies and doing the work. When thinking about today - I found this… It has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time but as I began to read it it was a great reminder Because however experienced we become, it is incredibly easy to get pulled into the tactical work and lose sight of the discipline underneath it. So preparing this talk was as much for me as for you all.
• #2 Or put more simply: On a mission to make marketing great again - felt cliche Or, make marketing broader than campaigns and communications.
• #3 So to start - a bit of the dreaded audience participation - don’t worry, won’t call anyone out But a useful exercise - Think of the business or brand you work for or with. What four words should customers associate with it? No generic words such as innovative, unique, strategic or purpose-led.
• #4 How easy did we find it? A simple question often produces complicated answers. Businesses are rarely short of ideas or activity. Clarity gets buried beneath campaigns, channels and competing priorities. If we cannot explain what we want to be known for, the problem starts before the tactics.
• #5 And it’s harder for us than ever before - More tools, data, content and pressure than ever - often with less budget Our ability to produce and execute has grown rapidly. More capability also means more possible choices. The challenge is deciding which activity will genuinely matter.
• #6 Ipsos found only 35% met its foundational marketing-knowledge benchmark. Around 65% did not meet it. The questions covered basics such as positioning and the marketing mix. Not a criticism of individuals; many enter marketing through specialist channels and learn the wider discipline while working. I still find it surprisingly easy to disappear into the tactics, and again, I’m not formally trained myself
• #7 So what - I’m great at what I do and in my discipline Speed itself is not the threat. The danger is uninformed speed. AI makes it possible to execute much faster and at greater scale. That makes marketing knowledge and judgement more valuable, not less.
• #8 A quick collective test for the room - just a bit of fun! Ask people to call out the seven Ps (traditionalists will still say there are 4 but see what we can do) Product, price, place, promotion, people, process, physical evidence.
• #9 Most current marketing conversations focus on content, search, social, advertising and campaigns. All are important, but they sit mainly within promotion. Marketing is also the offer, price, experience, people, process and route to market. 8 Ps, often add productivity, performance, partnerships, packaging, policy We have sometimes allowed one part of marketing to become almost the whole job.
• #10 Poor marketing decisions affect the wider organisation. They waste budget, overload teams and confuse customers. They weaken brands and create poor briefs for internal teams and agencies. AI can now scale the wrong work more efficiently. The cost compounds over time.
• #11 …that surround them Really liked this quote from Mark Ritson (worth a watch) Most marketers recognise the feeling of constant urgency. Campaigns, meetings, requests & revisions all compete for attention. None is necessarily unimportant. The issue is when urgent activity leaves no room for strategic thought. You can become good at putting out fires without checking whether you are in the right forest.
• #12 As a room - do we think any of the statements are a good idea? More content? TikTok? AI? Rebrand? More leads? The most marketing answer: “It depends.”! Used badly, it sounds evasive. Used properly, it means understanding context before prescribing a tactic. “It depends” is the start of diagnosis, not the end of the answer.
• #13 Let’s turn that into an example - sure most of you will have heard this… Sales are behind target, so the instinct is more traffic, advertising and campaigns. Diagnosis may reveal a different constraint. More promotion could simply create more waste. This is why we should not jump from symptom to tactic.
• #14 Fundamentals are not a nostalgic rejection of modern marketing. Platforms and formats will continue to change. Customer behaviour will change too. The questions beneath the work change much more slowly. Understanding people and making good choices remain load-bearing skills.
• #15 Obviously much more to learn, but I thought I’d share some core fundamentals Marketing begins outside the organisation. Not with internal opinion, the dashboard or the agency meeting. A marketer’s superpower is knowing who customers are, what they think and what they do. Speak to customers, listen to calls, read reviews and observe behaviour. Every day spent entirely inside the business risks creating distance from the market.
• #16 Sure everyone has heard of or read Seth Godin, but as he describes… Businesses often begin with their own need: more revenue, leads or awareness. Customers are concerned with their own progress, frustration or uncertainty. Good marketing connects the commercial goal with something genuinely useful to them.
• #17 It wouldn’t be a marketing talk without a mention of AI now would it?! AI is extremely useful for research, analysis, drafting, testing and personalisation. But producing more material does not make people care. People still need relevance, understanding and trust. Indeed, as in this example we are seeing some real push-back on AI generated content. AI should strengthen human understanding rather than replace it.
• #18 Another shout out for a read - Simon Sinek - made “start with why” memorable and accessible. Purpose can guide choices and create energy. But a company’s why is not automatically a customer reason to choose. Also ask: for whom, compared with what, why believe us and what action do we want? Purpose without customer relevance can become corporate theatre.
• #19 This i think is super relevant in todays marketing - Targeting is more than selecting an audience in an advertising platform. It is deciding which customers and needs receive priority. Where can the organisation genuinely create value and compete? Choosing whom not to design everything around is uncomfortable but necessary. Speaking equally to everyone often creates relevance for no one.
• #20 Positioning is not primarily an internal document. It is what we want someone to remember when they are ready to choose. Usually one, two or three useful associations, not twelve brand values. It must travel into sales, creative, service and customer memory. If it requires a large deck to explain, it is unlikely to survive in the market.
• #21 Climbing the ladder is key. As in this Walmart example: Walmart’s original truth was low prices. “Low prices” is a feature. “Save money” translates that feature into a customer benefit. “Live better” connects the benefit to a human outcome. They did not abandon the product truth; they made its meaning more powerful. Apply the same test: what do we provide, what does it enable and why does that matter?
• #22 David OIilvy - another worthwhile summer read, regarded positioning as the most important decision. Interesting because he is remembered for advertising execution. Positioning comes before the advert, channel or campaign. It directs what we emphasise, what we leave out and why someone should choose us. It is not decoration added after the strategic work.
• #23 Rory Sutherland’s work challenges the idea that customers behave like rational spreadsheets. People experience confidence, reassurance, simplicity, status, timing, trust and ease. A technically superior option can lose to one that feels easier or safer. Data matters, but not everything valuable is easy to measure in advance. Marketing still requires judgement about perception and human behaviour.
• #24 Strategy is as much about exclusion as inclusion. No to some audiences, channels, messages and requests. Limited time, budget and attention need deliberate allocation. A plan containing every possible initiative is usually a list, not a strategy. Focus creates the conditions for consistent execution.
• #25 AI changes how quickly and efficiently we can work. It does not remove the need for strategy. Remember some key questions Faster execution makes unclear direction more costly.
• #26 Like the analogy of comparing AI to an exceptionally fast racehorse. The horse is powerful, but still needs direction and judgement. The valuable skill is not only operating the tool. It is knowing what to ask, why it matters and what a good answer looks like. Marketing and commercial understanding make AI more useful.
• #27 My point being: AI scales weak output as effectively as strong output. More generic content, irrelevant personalisation and confident assumptions. The risk is not using AI; it is using it without enough direction. Move beyond the subtraction question: what can we do cheaper? The bigger opportunity is better work, not merely less expensive work.
• #28 I believe slides are being shared so here’s a simple framework before jumping from a symptom to a tactic. Diagnose / Define / Drive. Strategy should create clear choices, ownership and a route to action.
• #29 Better marketing rarely begins with another tactic. It begins with a clearer problem and a deliberate choice. Then it requires confidence and consistency to follow that choice through. Great time to be discussing over the summer: Annual Leave, 6 months of 2026 data, Black Friday / Christmas So my Final question: what marketing decision is your organisation currently avoiding? Thank you - hope you found it useful Any questions