The Philosophy of Marketing

Photo curtesy of Chip and Britt Stickney, 2025

All of my career and honestly through most of my educational years, I have been devoted to understanding people—what moves us, what motivates us, and why we make the choices we do. I began formally with my undergrad in psychology, hoping to change the world, and ended up professionally in marketing, learning how people decide and WHY. Decades later, I’ve learned that understanding human behavior isn’t just a science—it’s an art. And I’ve spent my career trying to master both, with each step of the way learning something new.

When asked if marketing is wasteful and superficial, I scoff, because to me, there are only two kinds of companies in business: those that get marketing, and those that don’t. Marketing is a puzzle—but it’s also one of the essential gears in the machine of business success. If the rest of the machine isn’t running right, marketing can’t fix it. And when key pieces of the marketing puzzle are missing, no amount of social posts, ad spend, or email blasts will deliver true, lasting growth. I read recently in a marketing book, that its clear which brands use sound marketing principles based on their long-term success and which do not (McDonald & Meldrum, 2013). So what does that tell you? Marketing works when done right.

As someone who has loved marketing for decades, I have seen first-hand what happens when a business doesn’t understand marketing. And usually, if they don’t understand marketing, they also don’t understand customer service, employee culture and operational efficiency or rather have their own version of such. It doesn’t matter if I’m cranking out the best marketing content and driving hundreds of leads and sales if the product quality isn’t being managed and customer service can’t be reached. This may feel like an obvious statement to make, but trust me when I say, marketing will always take the fall for other breaks in the chain when a company is struggling financially. As someone who wanted to save the world at one point, I have tried to help save several brands. And each time I failed miserably because I didn’t research how the company operated in detail.

I’m not sharing this to whine, I’m sharing this because I have recently learned something invaluable – there are good and bad companies out there and they will stand out like red flags when you understand marketing. That’s to say, its them, not me.

For example. I was moved to Florida for a head of marketing role a few years back. Financially this company was not stable and couldn’t afford the marketing budget I pitched and they committed to. This is 100% on me. I should have insisted on seeing P&L statements to confirm the company was financially stable. Financial matters will impact a business’s customers; this case more specifically in that the business could not deliver the goods promised to its customers in a reasonable timeframe due to lacking materials and supplies (McDonald & Meldrum, 2013). But I have also encountered failure to understand and develop marketing principles on many occasions as a consultant. Too many brands just want to skip to the tactics. For me, as I mentioned before, marketing is a puzzle and if pieces are missing, you will never be successful long term. Skipping to the tactics and jumping past the marketing strategy is like trying to build a house without a foundation. It will eventually crumble. So, you want me to just send out emails and social media posts on this widget that 15 other competitors sell? You are better off flushing your money down the toilet.

Through all my years of acquired skills related to tactics and specific marketing disciplines, I have been taught to begin with a strategy. But more than anything else I have learned, I love the breakdown of the levels of marketing principles - philosophy, strategy and tactical. The philosophical level means that marketing will never be more than a trivial function until executive management strives for superior customer value. The strategic level includes the disciplines of marketing like research and analysis, market segmentation, positioning, product development, etc. And finally, the tactical is the implementation through marketing channels.

While I have long maintained that so many companies are lacking a strategy, the piece that I was overlooking the most was the philosophical level. Striving for superior customer value in order to attain long-term success comes first and must come from executive management (McDonald & Meldrum, 2013). In countless interviews for jobs I have asked, “Do you know who your customers are?” and 99% of the time the person sitting across from me chuckles and says “no”. So, if these businesses can’t even define who their customers are, they certainly aren’t focused on building a culture that puts the customer needs first.

So the question is, are you ready for marketing?

References

McDonald, M., & Meldrum, M. (2013). The complete marketer: 60 essential concepts for marketing excellence. Kogan Page Publishers.