Marketing shouldn’t be the department of catchy taglines, pretty websites, or social media campaigns with an upbeat jingle. Marketing is—and always has been—the voice of the company and the ear for the customer. The problem? Too many organizations treat it like a loudspeaker for company messaging and forget it’s also a listening device.
Marketing is the translator between what a company does and what a customer wants. It’s the only function that spans both internal strategy and external perception. Done right, marketing tells the market who you are, what you believe, and why you matter. But more importantly, it listens. It hears the unspoken needs, the friction points, and the subtle shifts in customer behavior long before a sales report or quarterly review shows a red flag.
But here’s the rub: Many companies silo marketing into execution. Launch this campaign. Promote that product. Build a funnel. And when the numbers don’t add up, they blame the tactics. Rarely do they step back and ask: Did we listen first?
Listening is the hard part. It requires patience, context, and sometimes uncomfortable truths. Customers won’t always tell you directly what they want—but they’ll show you in their actions, their hesitations, their silence. And marketing is uniquely positioned to decode that.
Yet marketing teams are too often buried under performance metrics that measure volume, not value. Impressions, clicks, likes. All noise if they’re not aligned with business strategy and customer insight. What if we measured how often marketing uncovered a product flaw? Or how well it translated customer needs into R&D priorities?
Great marketing doesn’t just amplify the brand. It informs the business. It’s a feedback loop, not a megaphone. And when treated as such, it becomes one of the most strategic assets a company has.
So, if your marketing team isn’t sitting in on product meetings, sales calls, and customer interviews, you’re only getting half the value. And if they’re not bringing insights back into the business, you’re missing the signal in the noise.
Marketing should speak boldly and listen deeply. Because when it does both, it doesn’t just create campaigns—it creates clarity. And clarity? That’s your competitive edge.
About the Author
Trained as a behavioral scientist and customer-centricity expert, Andrea Belk Olson helps companies operationalize corporate strategy through understanding mindsets and behaviors. She is the author of three business books, including her most recent, What To Ask: How To Learn What Customers Need but Don’t Tell You.
She is a 4x ADDY award winner and contributing writer to Entrepreneur Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Rotman Magazine, World Economic Forum, and more. Andrea is also an entrepreneurial adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa and TEDx speaker coach.
More information is also available on www.pragmadik.com and www.andreabelkolson.com.
