How did marketing become a tactical player?

Over the past 10-15 years, there has been a significant shift in how marketing is viewed as a strategic part of business. Continuous optimisation, digital channels, and tactical actions have replaced brand building, customer experience, and strategic marketing, even though impactful marketing needs the full range of tools, the complete marketing mix.

Strategic marketing is a process for creating customer value

Every business graduate and marketer is likely familiar with Kotler’s central thesis on marketing’s core task: creating customer value.

"Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture valuе from customers in return."

– Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong, ”Principles of Marketing”, 1980

Successful business is built around customer value. If products and services don’t deliver value for customers, common sense says that the company will not run for a long time. As the core function of marketing is to create customer value and relationships, one might assume it would be seen as a critical leadership tool.

We know teenagers will pay several times more for branded sneakers than for shoes from a supermarket. But brand value matters in B2B as well: research involving over 300 companies showed that brand awareness significantly boosts B2B business success.

Yet the use of strategic marketing and brand building is declining. 70 % of marketers plan to increase tactical marketing budgets in 2025 and reduce brand marketing. At the same time in 2024 marketing budgets according to Gartner were cut by 15 %.

Why did this happen?

Why has marketing lost altitude?

1. Easy but short wins with tactical marketing

A marketing strategy defines how customer value is maximised from first contact to recommendation. It requires an understanding of strategic business choices, objectives, and the target audience. The service value proposition must meet the customer’s needs, and messages and channels should be chosen carefully. Customer experience needs to be managed so that the brand promise is delivered and strengthened at every touchpoint.

It’s much easier to launch a tactical campaign that boosts short-term sales than to build a comprehensive marketing strategy. Uncertain times and short-term pressures make tactical tools attractive.

2. Customer insight was forgotten

To create true customer value with marketing, you need to understand what creates that value. Without genuine insight, marketing relies on gut feeling and the results reflect this.

3. The marketing technology avalanche

Marketing automation, e-commerce, SEO, digital advertising… marketing has become a technological jungle. As technology grows, strategic approaches take the bench. Digital and system investments also divert budget away from brand and strategic marketing.

4. Tactical metrics are simpler

Brand awareness and interest have been measured for decades, but doing so requires extensive consumer surveys, which can be resource-intensive. In B2B, research is even more exåemsove and finding respondents is difficult. Digital marketing made marketing instantly measurable. It’s no wonder that CR, CTR and CAC metrics that are within everyone’s reach have become so attractive.