Marketing or communications?

“Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.”

Dr Philip Kotler

Marketing Strategy Scotland

Marketing is about creating and managing intangible assets – customer and channel relationships and brands – to maximise shareholder value. Every point of contact an organisation has with people will shape their view of your brand… from how you handle a prospective employee’s first application; to how you engage with your clients; the products you make; how you deliver your service; right down to how you dump your rubbish.

Technology has always driven marketing and communications starting with the industrial revolution. From the early 20th century marketing focus on distribution, through to the aggressive advertising and selling in the late 1940s, up to the emergence of branding some 40 years ago, with its emphasis on understanding what customers wanted and meeting those needs, marketing is constantly evolving.

We are now in the age of individual marketing – based on building direct relationships with individual consumers through personalised communications. Mass customisation of products and ecommerce have also transformed the way consumers engage with brands. The new consumer-facing marketing is all about marketing directly to the individual providing superior value through personalised products and services, catching up with the way that B2B marketing have always engaged.

Communications is the art of building the message, combining the brand vision, mission and values.

Ensuring that your key messages reach the people you want to talk to in a consistent, credible and ethical way should be your core communications objective.
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Marketing communications is focused on reinforcing the brand values and key messages, while clearly articulating the benefits of the products and services to customers, to maximise shareholder value.
Corporate communications is the function entrusted with liaison between the brand and its public, whether internal (from employee engagement to cultural transformation) or external (key influencers and stakeholders).
Both marketing and corporate communications should be consistently reinforcing the brand. Although both functions largely address the same audiences, marketing’s primary purpose is to generate a profit.

“Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential.” 

Dr Philip Kotler 

If your business is wrestling with conflicting communications and muddled marketing priorities, or:

  • struggling to achieve the next stage of commercial growth and customer engagement
  • undergoing merger or acquisition activity or a total refocus of company strategy
  • facing confusion around launching a new product or service – and which markets to target
  • dealing with dwindling revenue streams and unprofitable products and services
  • watching weak acquisition, ineffective demand/lead generation and poor brand engagement
  • drifting into commercial irrelevance with competitors outpacing you
    feeing like a faded brand with outdated marketing capabilities
  • wrangling with reputation management issues and lack of brand awareness...

Then Dynamic Heart can help. Fill in the contact form with a brief outline of your challenge and your preferred contact method and times.

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