Marketing is More Than Growth: The 3 Parts of a Complete Strategy

Marketing is More Than Growth: The 3 Parts of a Complete Strategy

In the world of marketing, there is a common misconception that growth is the sole focus. However, true marketing leaders understand that there are three essential domains that must be integrated for a complete and successful marketing strategy: brand marketing, growth marketing, and product marketing.

Brand marketing is all about sharing the story of why your organization exists and creating meaningful, emotional connections with your audience. It goes beyond just increasing awareness and intent, but also reinforces the brand promise at every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle. Through brand partnerships, drip campaigns, and more, brand marketing captures new customers and keeps them engaged.

On the other hand, product marketing is about delivering on that brand promise. It involves packaging, pricing, and making features accessible and understandable to users. Product marketing ensures that your organization is effectively communicating what it is doing to deliver value to its customers.

Lastly, growth marketing focuses on reaching customers and acquiring and retaining them. It utilizes triggers, channels, messaging, and personalization to bring customers into the product and keep them there. However, it is important to note that if changes are made in one domain, it will inevitably impact the others. The growth marketing strategy and brand marketing strategy need to be in lockstep to effectively distribute the brand to potential or existing customers.

To successfully integrate these domains, marketing teams must sequence the changes in each domain to have a compounding impact. Siloed teams often struggle to bring these pieces together, but those who can effectively integrate will have less brittle strategies. Proactivity is also essential because changes in each domain happen over different time horizons. While growth marketing performance can be measured quickly, product and brand marketing may take months to develop and have a long-term impact.

It is crucial for marketing leaders and individual contributors to look at the intersections of each puzzle piece and align who, where, what, how, and why for even more impact. By proactively monitoring internal and external factors such as audience expansion, business model evolution, product launches, macro trends, competitive landscape, regulatory trends, and technology or user behavior changes, marketing leaders can identify inflection points that may require revisiting the overall marketing strategy.

Now, let's shift gears and explore the world of research and understanding. Research is often seen as a process that leads to novel discoveries. However, this perspective overlooks the true essence of research. Research is a continuation of something we naturally do: learning. Learning occurs when we understand something that someone else already understands, while research happens when we understand something that nobody else understands yet.

The novel discoveries that arise from research are actually side effects of trying to understand something beyond the bounds of current human knowledge. It is through the exploration of strangeness and the realization that certain pieces of the understanding puzzle don't fit that researchers are compelled to delve deeper into uncharted territory.

As researchers go extraordinarily deep in an unexplored direction, they eventually reach a point where they can turn their understanding into an explanatory model, leading to groundbreaking discoveries. This process involves trying to deeply understand something until they surpass the edge of what is currently known and then continuing to explore imaginatively onwards.

However, it is important to note that this process of understanding needs to be augmented with a model of what is already known. Without this model, researchers may mistakenly believe they are discovering new things at the edge when, in reality, they are simply rediscovering what is already known.

The process of research is not just about making novel discoveries, but rather a creative process of actively constructing explanations of how things work. It is a process that should be emulated, rather than focusing solely on the outcome. The playfulness, curiosity, enjoyment, humor, and amazement that come with research are what drive true innovation.

In conclusion, marketing and research share common points and principles. Both require an understanding of what is already known and a willingness to explore beyond the boundaries of current knowledge. To succeed in marketing, it is crucial to integrate brand marketing, growth marketing, and product marketing. Similarly, in research, the process of understanding and exploring beyond what is known is what leads to novel discoveries.

To apply these concepts in practice, here are three actionable pieces of advice:

1. Foster collaboration and communication between the different domains of marketing. Break down silos and encourage cross-functional teams to ensure that changes in one domain are aligned with the others.

2. Embrace a proactive mindset and stay ahead of internal and external factors that may impact your marketing strategy. Monitor audience expansion, business model evolution, product launches, macro trends, competitive landscape, regulatory trends, and technology or user behavior changes.

3. Focus on the process of understanding and exploration, rather than solely on the outcome. Emulate the curiosity, playfulness, and enjoyment that come with research. Continuously strive to deepen your understanding and push beyond the boundaries of what is currently known.

By incorporating these principles and taking actionable steps, marketing leaders and individual contributors can amplify their impact and drive greater success in their marketing strategies. Remember, marketing is more than just growth – it is the convergence of brand marketing, growth marketing, and product marketing to create a holistic and effective strategy.