Marketing Strategy vs. Activity: An Examination of Service Models

I. The Crossroads of Modern Marketing

The marketing landscape leading up to 2019 presented businesses with unprecedented complexity. Marketers navigated a rapidly expanding universe of channels – digital, social, mobile – alongside traditional media, each demanding unique approaches and expertise.¹ Simultaneously, the explosion of data offered the potential for deeper customer understanding but also created significant challenges in analysis and application.² Customer expectations were also rising; informed and empowered by digital tools, they demanded more personalized and seamless experiences across their interactions with brands.⁴ This confluence of channel fragmentation, data overload, and heightened expectations created immense pressure on marketing departments, often stretching internal resources and capabilities thin.⁶ In this environment, the appeal of external support grew, leading businesses to explore different models for outsourcing marketing functions.

This report examines two distinct approaches to leveraging external marketing support, prevalent in the discourse before February 2019: Marketing Activity as a Service (MAAAS) and Marketing Strategy as a Service (MSAAS). Understanding the fundamental differences between these models is crucial for navigating the complexities of the time and making sound decisions about resource allocation and partnership.

• Marketing Activity as a Service (MAAAS): This model centers on the outsourcing of specific marketing tasks and execution – the ‘how’ of marketing. MAAAS providers are typically engaged to perform discrete activities such as managing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, executing email marketing programs, creating content based on client directives, or handling social media posting schedules. The focus is often on channel-specific delivery and the efficient completion of assigned tasks. This aligns closely with the concept of tactical marketing, which involves the shorter-term, concrete steps and initiatives used to implement broader plans.⁷
• Marketing Strategy as a Service (MSAAS): In contrast, MSAAS involves outsourcing higher-level marketing planning, direction, and insight generation – addressing the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of marketing efforts. MSAAS providers focus on activities such as conducting market research, performing customer segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP), developing comprehensive marketing plans, mapping the customer journey, defining strategic objectives aligned with business goals, and guiding overall marketing investment decisions. This model corresponds to strategic marketing, which provides the overarching vision and long-term plan.⁷

Based on the marketing principles and evidence available prior to February 2019, this report contends that while MAAAS offers apparent efficiencies in task execution, an over-reliance on this activity-focused model without a robust, guiding strategic foundation – whether developed internally or through MSAAS – constitutes a significant strategic vulnerability. Such an approach frequently leads to misdirected resources, a potentially misleading focus on superficial metrics, strategic drift away from market realities, and ultimately, hinders the achievement of sustainable business growth and durable competitive advantage. The analysis suggests that true marketing value originates from sound strategy, which must necessarily dictate and inform activity, not the other way around.

To clarify these distinctions, Table 1 provides a comparative overview based on pre-2019 understanding.

Table 1: MAAAS vs. MSAAS – A Comparative Overview (Pre-2019 Context)

Feature	MAAAS (Activity-Focused)	MSAAS (Strategy-Focused)
Primary Focus	Execution of specific tasks (the ‘how’)	Planning, direction, insight (the ‘why’ and ‘what’)
Key Deliverables	Campaigns, posts, ads, emails, content pieces	Marketing plans, research reports, STP frameworks, roadmaps
Time Horizon	Short-term tasks, campaign cycles	Long-term goals, multi-year planning
Typical Metrics	Activity metrics (e.g., clicks, impressions), vanity metrics	Outcome metrics (e.g., market share, ROI), strategic KPIs
Core Value Prop.	Efficiency, task completion, specialized execution skills	Growth, competitive advantage, market insight, strategic clarity
Relationship to Client	Vendor, order taker, tactical executor	Strategic partner, advisor, planner

This table highlights the fundamental divergence: MAAAS offers a way to do marketing tasks, while MSAAS offers guidance on what marketing to do and why. This distinction forms the basis of the subsequent analysis into the allure, pitfalls, and necessities of each approach in the pre-2019 marketing environment.

II. The Allure and Illusion of Activity: Understanding MAAAS

The appeal of Marketing Activity as a Service (MAAAS) models in the pre-2019 business environment is understandable. Faced with the increasing complexity of the marketing landscape and the proliferation of digital channels, businesses sought ways to manage the workload and access specialized skills.⁴ MAAAS providers offered seemingly straightforward solutions: outsourcing specific, often technical, tasks like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising management, social media execution, or email campaign deployment.⁶ This approach promised efficiency, allowing internal teams to offload time-consuming activities. It provided access to agencies or consultants possessing specific tactical expertise that might be lacking internally.²² Furthermore, MAAAS delivered tangible outputs – blog posts written, ads placed, emails sent – which created a sense of progress and activity, often perceived as value by management.²⁴ For startups or companies needing to scale specific functions quickly, MAAAS appeared to be a flexible and rapid solution.²²

However, this focus on activity aligns with a concerning trend observed within the marketing discipline itself prior to 2019: the “tactification” of marketing.¹⁴ Critics like Mark Ritson argued that marketing was increasingly devolving into a purely tactical pursuit, overly preoccupied with the latest tools, channels (particularly digital ones), and execution methods, often at the expense of foundational strategic thinking.¹⁴ The systematic process of research, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and objective setting was being bypassed in favor of jumping straight into tactical execution.¹⁴ Some marketers even began defining their roles by tactical specializations (e.g., “digital marketer”) rather than strategic function, potentially selecting their methods before understanding the strategic context.¹⁴ In some cases, the definition of “strategy” itself became diluted, mistaken for simply ensuring cohesive branding across various tactical outputs rather than defining the fundamental market approach.⁹ MAAAS models catered directly to this demand for tactical execution. The rise and appeal of MAAAS can be seen, in part, as a market response meeting this pre-existing, albeit potentially flawed, internal demand within businesses for immediate action and channel-specific solutions, rather than a demand for rigorous strategic planning. It offered an easy pathway to implement desired tactics without necessarily requiring the prerequisite strategic groundwork.

This inherent focus on activity within the MAAAS model naturally leads to a reliance on vanity metrics for demonstrating performance. Vanity metrics, such as website pageviews, social media likes or followers, email open rates, or the sheer volume of content produced, are easily quantifiable outputs of the activities MAAAS providers are contracted to perform.³¹ They are simple to collect, often readily available from standard analytics packages, and can present an appealing, upward-trending picture that makes both the provider and the client feel good.³¹ However, extensive criticism pre-2019 highlighted the dangers of these metrics. They often lack meaningful context, fail to provide actionable insights for decision-making, and crucially, do not reliably correlate with actual business outcomes like revenue, customer lifetime value, or market share.³¹ A surge in website visits, for example, means little if those visitors are not the target audience or if they immediately leave without engaging (high bounce rate).³⁸ A large number of app downloads is misleading if the vast majority of users churn shortly after installation.³⁴ These metrics measure activity, not progress towards strategic goals or the delivery of real value.³⁶ Because MAAAS providers are primarily incentivized to demonstrate completion of the contracted activities, their reporting naturally gravitates towards these easily measured, activity-based vanity metrics. This can create a dangerous illusion of success, where resources are continuously poured into activities that generate impressive-looking numbers but fail to contribute meaningfully to the business’s strategic objectives or bottom line. The ease of measuring activity effectively masks the difficulty of measuring true strategic impact, reinforcing the tactical focus and potentially justifying continued spend on ineffective programs.

III. The Bedrock of Success: The Strategic Imperative of MSAAS

In stark contrast to the activity-centric nature of MAAAS, Marketing Strategy as a Service (MSAAS) aligns with the fundamental principles of strategic marketing, recognized long before 2019 as the bedrock of sustainable business success. Strategy is not merely a list of actions or a yearly plan; it is the foundational logic defining where an organization chooses to compete and how it intends to win within that chosen space.¹⁴ It represents a deliberate, informed approach to achieving long-term goals. The development of a robust marketing strategy involves a systematic and rigorous process, encompassing several key elements:

1. Mission and Vision: Understanding the organization’s core purpose, values, and long-term aspirations provides the essential context for any strategic endeavor.¹⁹
2. Research and Analysis: This involves a deep dive into the market landscape, including understanding customer needs and behaviors, analyzing competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, and conducting an honest internal assessment of the organization’s own capabilities (often through a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).¹¹
3. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP): Based on research, the market is divided into distinct segments. Specific target segments are then chosen based on attractiveness and the firm’s ability to serve them effectively. Finally, a clear value proposition and positioning strategy are developed to differentiate the offering in the minds of the target customers.⁸
4. Setting Objectives: Clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) marketing objectives are established. Crucially, these objectives must align directly with overarching business goals, such as revenue growth, market share gains, or customer retention.²
5. Resource Allocation: Strategic planning guides the efficient allocation of finite resources (budget, personnel, time) to the opportunities and initiatives most likely to achieve the defined objectives.²¹

MSAAS providers, by definition, specialize in facilitating and executing this systematic strategic process. They bring frameworks, analytical capabilities, market knowledge, and an external perspective to help organizations navigate these critical planning stages.¹

A core tenet of effective marketing, well-established before 2019, is the hierarchical relationship between strategy and tactics: strategy must come first.⁷ Strategy sets the direction, the goals, and the overall approach – the ‘why’ and ‘what’. Tactics are the specific actions, tools, and initiatives used to execute that strategy and achieve the objectives – the ‘how’.⁷ Attempting to implement tactics without a guiding strategy was widely recognized as inefficient and ineffective, famously described as “the noise before defeat”.¹⁴ Strategic marketing planning provides the logical sequence that culminates in objectives and the plans to achieve them.²⁰ MSAAS inherently respects this vital sequence. By focusing on the development of the strategic foundation – the research, analysis, STP, and objective setting – MSAAS ensures that subsequent tactical execution, whether handled by internal teams or MAAAS providers, is coherent, purposeful, and aligned with the overarching business aims. It provides the necessary framework to prevent marketing activities from becoming disconnected, random acts.

Ultimately, the purpose of marketing strategy is to create sustainable business value. Unlike the task-completion focus of MAAAS, a strategic approach, whether driven internally or facilitated by MSAAS, is fundamentally oriented towards achieving long-term, meaningful business outcomes. This value creation manifests in several ways identified in pre-2019 literature:

• Enhanced Customer Value: Strategy necessitates a deep understanding of customer needs and the development of offerings and experiences that meet those needs effectively. Delivering superior customer value is the cornerstone of successful marketing.¹⁸
• Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A core objective of strategy is to identify and build sources of differentiation that competitors cannot easily replicate, leading to a stronger market position.¹⁸
• Improved Profitability and Growth: Strategic planning directly links marketing efforts to financial outcomes, aiming for profitable growth in revenue and market share.¹⁸ It ensures resources are focused on the most promising opportunities.²¹
• Increased Adaptability and Resilience: By systematically analyzing the external environment and internal capabilities, strategic planning enhances an organization’s ability to anticipate and respond effectively to market changes, competitive moves, and emerging threats or opportunities.²⁰

The documented benefits of strategic marketing planning – such as improved coordination, better anticipation of developments, a positive attitude towards change, and superior resource allocation ²⁰ – are precisely the outcomes an effective MSAAS engagement aims to deliver. This focus on foundational business health contrasts sharply with the MAAAS model’s emphasis on executing discrete activities.

Central to any effective marketing strategy is a profound understanding of the customer. Before 2019, Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) emerged as a powerful strategic tool to achieve this understanding.⁶¹ CJM involves visualizing the end-to-end experience a customer has when interacting with a company or brand, from initial awareness through purchase and post-purchase engagement.⁶³ It focuses not just on the touchpoints (moments of contact) but also on the customer’s actions, thoughts, and emotions at each stage.⁶¹ By stepping into the customer’s shoes, organizations could identify critical “moments that matter,” uncover pain points and friction in the experience, and discover opportunities for improvement.⁶³ This deep customer empathy was recognized as vital for designing effective strategies, improving satisfaction, fostering loyalty, and driving growth.⁶¹ Indeed, by 2017-2018, CJM was increasingly viewed not just as a tool but as a strategic imperative ⁷⁴, a key trend in customer experience management ⁷⁵, and a practice with demonstrable ROI potential.⁵¹ Failing to maintain this customer focus was seen as a direct path to strategic drift, where companies lose touch with their market.⁴⁷ MSAAS, with its emphasis on research, analysis, and strategic planning, is inherently better equipped than MAAAS to integrate these deep customer journey insights. While an MAAAS provider might execute tactics at specific points along the journey (e.g., sending an email at a certain stage), MSAAS contributes to defining the strategic approach to the journey itself, ensuring that all subsequent activities are genuinely designed around the customer’s perspective and needs, rather than being dictated solely by channel-specific best practices or assumptions.

IV. Indictment: The Inherent Risks of Prioritizing Activity Over Strategy (MAAAS > MSAAS)

While the allure of quick action and tangible outputs makes MAAAS appealing, prioritizing marketing activity over foundational strategy invites significant risks, as evidenced by marketing principles and documented challenges preceding 2019. Relying heavily on MAAAS without the guiding hand of a robust internal strategy or an MSAAS partner can lead to inefficiencies, strategic blindness, misleading measurements, vendor dependency, and a diminished role for marketing within the organization.

• Wasted Motion & Misallocated Resources: Perhaps the most immediate danger of an activity-first approach is inefficiency. Executing marketing tactics – sending emails, running ads, posting on social media – without clear strategic alignment often results in wasted effort and budget.⁴⁶ Activities might be performed competently in isolation by an MAAAS provider, but if they aren’t contributing to well-defined, overarching strategic goals, they represent misallocated resources. Pre-2019 marketing maturity models identified a common “Tactical/Transition” stage where companies execute digital campaigns sporadically across channels without full integration or consistent measurement.¹³ This stage is characterized by frustration, intense demand on resources, and an inability to demonstrate clear ROI, creating a “chicken and egg” cycle where lack of measurable success hinders further investment.¹³ Relying on multiple MAAAS providers for various disconnected tactics, without overarching strategic direction from MSAAS or a strong internal team, risks locking a company into this inefficient and frustrating tactical stage. Resources are consumed by activity, but strategic coherence and optimal results remain elusive. The high rate of strategy implementation failures reported by consulting firms even before 2019 underscores the costliness of poorly executed or misaligned actions.⁷⁶

• Strategic Blindness & Marketing Myopia: An intense focus on doing marketing activities can obscure the need to understand what should be done and why. This inward focus on execution, inherent in the MAAAS model when unguided, creates a significant risk of “Marketing Myopia” – the term coined by Theodore Levitt to describe a short-sighted focus on products or activities rather than on underlying customer needs and market evolution.⁷⁸ Companies become preoccupied with selling what they currently make or doing what they currently do, failing to recognize shifts in customer preferences, emerging technologies, or new competitive threats.⁴⁷ The historical examples of companies like Kodak and Nokia serve as stark pre-2019 warnings. Despite inventing early digital camera technology, Kodak’s management, fixated on their profitable film business (a product focus), failed to embrace the digital shift strategically, ultimately leading to bankruptcy.⁷⁸ Similarly, Nokia, once dominant in mobile hardware, underestimated the strategic shift towards software ecosystems and touchscreen interfaces driven by competitors like Apple, clinging too long to its established Symbian platform and hardware-centric view.⁷⁹ An MAAAS provider, contracted to execute specific tasks (e.g., manage film promotions or optimize Symbian app ads), would likely have performed those tasks efficiently, even as the underlying strategy became obsolete. MAAAS models, by their nature, fulfill the client’s directives; they typically lack the mandate, incentive, or often the capability to fundamentally challenge the client’s strategy or proactively identify the need for radical change based on external market dynamics. MSAAS, conversely, is specifically designed to provide this critical external, strategic perspective, analyzing the market and customer needs to prevent myopia.

• The Noise Before Defeat: Measuring Motion, Not Progress: As discussed earlier, the activity-focus of MAAAS lends itself to reporting vanity metrics. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s dangerous. It creates “the noise before defeat” ¹⁴ by measuring motion rather than meaningful progress. Focusing on metrics like clicks, followers, or pageviews can lead organizations to optimize the wrong things, potentially even destroying value while creating an illusion of productivity.³¹ True progress can only be assessed through actionable metrics directly tied to the strategic objectives that MSAAS or a strong internal strategy function should define and track.³¹ The well-documented difficulty marketers faced pre-2019 in proving the ROI of their efforts, particularly for channels like social media and content marketing, made the easily reported activity metrics generated by MAAAS providers even more tempting.⁹¹ However, succumbing to this temptation means sacrificing genuine insight into marketing’s contribution to business goals in favor of superficial activity reports. An MSAAS approach, while demanding more rigorous measurement, focuses on defining and tracking these more meaningful, albeit often more challenging, outcome-based metrics.

• The Chains of Convenience: Vendor Lock-in Risks: Engaging MAAAS providers, particularly those offering integrated services or relying on proprietary technology platforms for execution, introduces a significant risk of vendor lock-in.⁹⁶ Lock-in occurs when a customer becomes dependent on a single supplier due to substantial switching costs or inconvenience.⁹⁶ These costs can arise from data migration challenges, the need to learn new systems, process re-engineering efforts, contractual obligations, or dependence on proprietary data formats or APIs controlled by the vendor.⁹⁶ Outsourcing critical functions, as is common with MAAAS, inherently carries a high risk of lock-in.¹⁰⁴ Strategies to mitigate this, such as ensuring data ownership, insisting on open standards, and using separate suppliers for distinct functions (e.g., hosting vs. development), were advised pre-2019.⁹⁶ The trend towards insourcing some marketing functions, noted in studies around 2018, was partly driven by frustrations with agency performance, including lack of transparency and skills gaps.¹⁰⁶ This context makes MAAAS lock-in particularly perilous. If a business becomes locked into an MAAAS provider that subsequently underperforms or exhibits the very issues driving the insourcing trend, the high switching costs trap the client in an undesirable relationship, exacerbating the initial problem. MSAAS engagements, being focused primarily on strategy, knowledge transfer, and planning rather than specific execution platforms, generally carry a lower risk of technical or platform-based lock-in.

• Diminishing Marketing’s Clout: When marketing is reduced primarily to a series of outsourced tactical tasks managed via MAAAS, it risks reinforcing the outdated and detrimental perception of the function as merely a cost center or the “colouring-in department”.¹⁴ This tactical view diminishes marketing’s potential contribution and influence within the organization. Conversely, true strategic marketing, whether developed internally or through MSAAS, involves high-level planning, cross-functional collaboration (involving finance, operations, sales), and a direct impact on core business objectives like profitability and competitive advantage.¹⁹ Engaging an MSAAS provider signals a commitment to marketing as a strategic driver of the business. Relying solely on MAAAS, however, can inadvertently marginalize the strategic importance of marketing, relegating it to a procurement function focused on acquiring tactical execution services rather than a source of strategic direction and growth.

Table 2 summarizes these inherent risks associated with prioritizing marketing activity over strategy, a scenario easily fostered by an over-reliance on MAAAS without adequate strategic guidance.

Table 2: The Perils of Tactical Fixation (MAAAS without MSAAS) – Common Pitfalls (Pre-2019)

V. Charting a Strategic Course: Recommendations for a Post-Activity Era (Pre-2019 Perspective)

Recognizing the inherent limitations and risks of an activity-centric marketing approach, particularly one heavily reliant on unguided MAAAS, requires a conscious shift towards prioritizing strategy. Based on insights and best practices available before February 2019, organizations seeking sustainable growth and competitive resilience should consider the following recommendations:

• Cultivate a Strategic Mindset: The foundation of effective marketing is a strategy-first culture championed by leadership. Strategic marketing planning is not solely the domain of the marketing department; it requires genuine cross-functional collaboration involving sales, finance, operations, and product development.¹⁹ This ensures alignment across the organization and facilitates the successful implementation of marketing plans.⁵⁸ The focus must shift from reacting to immediate tactical requests towards proactively defining and pursuing strategic business objectives through marketing.¹⁶ This involves fostering better communication and coordination between departments to break down silos and ensure marketing efforts support broader company goals.²⁰

• Choose Partners Wisely: Prioritize Strategic Capability: When seeking external support, organizations should critically evaluate potential partners based on their ability to provide strategic insight and guidance (MSAAS capabilities) rather than solely on their proficiency in executing specific tasks (MAAAS capabilities). The goal should be to find partners focused on achieving business outcomes and delivering measurable value, not just completing a list of activities.¹ While frustrations with traditional agency models regarding transparency and skills were noted ¹⁰⁶, the solution is not necessarily to abandon external help but to select partners who offer genuine strategic value. Hybrid models, where a strong internal strategy or an MSAAS partner sets the direction and oversees the tactical execution carried out by MAAAS providers or internal teams, represented an emerging best practice.¹⁰⁷ This ensures that all activities, regardless of who performs them, are strategically aligned and contribute effectively to the overarching plan.

• Harness Data for Strategic Insight, Not Just Activity Reporting: The pre-2019 era saw a surge in available data, recognized as a critical asset for marketing.³ However, significant challenges existed in data quality, integration (data silos), and the ability to extract meaningful insights.³ Organizations must move beyond using data merely to report on campaign activity – a common pitfall associated with MAAAS reporting – and instead leverage analytics strategically. This means using data to gain a deeper understanding of customers and their journeys ⁶⁴, identify unmet needs and market opportunities ⁴³, segment audiences more effectively ², measure the true impact of marketing initiatives on business goals ², and inform strategic decision-making.² The emergence of AI and machine learning tools offered new potential for deeper analysis and prediction, further emphasizing the need for a strategic approach to data.⁴ Moreover, regulations like the GDPR, coming into effect in 2018, mandated a more strategic and transparent approach to collecting, storing, and using customer data, making robust data governance essential.¹¹⁹ Overcoming the prevalent data challenges requires the analytical rigor and integrative perspective characteristic of MSAAS, rather than the potentially fragmented activity data generated by MAAAS providers.

• Align Incentives with Strategic Outcomes: The way agencies or consultants are compensated significantly influences their behavior and alignment with client goals. Traditional commission-based models, often tied to media spend, faced criticism pre-2019 for creating potential conflicts of interest and disincentivizing media neutrality or efficiency.¹²⁴ To ensure external partners are genuinely focused on achieving strategic objectives, compensation models should shift towards fee-for-service arrangements based on resources and scope, or ideally, value-based models that reward the partner based on the achievement of pre-agreed strategic outcomes or the creation of measurable business value.¹⁰⁷ Paying an MAAAS provider per activity or via a simple retainer incentivizes activity completion, regardless of its strategic effectiveness. In contrast, compensating an MSAAS partner based on achieving key performance indicators tied to business goals (e.g., market share growth, improved customer lifetime value, demonstrable ROI) ensures their motivations are directly aligned with the client’s success.

• Build Internal Strategic Muscle / Empower Teams: While outsourcing can provide valuable expertise, long-term strategic resilience often requires building internal capabilities. Organizations should consider investing in training and developing their own marketing teams to enhance their strategic thinking and planning skills. Alternatively, when engaging MSAAS providers, the focus should extend beyond simply receiving a strategic plan. Forward-thinking agencies and consultancies prior to 2018 were already positioning themselves around client empowerment, knowledge transfer, and building the client’s internal digital capabilities, rather than seeking long-term dependency through retainers.¹²⁶ This approach fosters a collaborative partnership where the external expert helps upskill the internal team, ultimately strengthening the organization’s own strategic muscle. The most sustainable path involves either robust internal strategic competence or an MSAAS partnership explicitly focused on co-creation and empowerment, moving beyond a simple transactional relationship for deliverables.

VI. Conclusion: Strategy as the Engine, Activity as the Fuel

The pre-2019 marketing environment, characterized by its complexity and rapid evolution, presented organizations with a critical choice: prioritize the efficient execution of marketing activities or invest in the development of sound marketing strategy. The emergence of distinct service models – Marketing Activity as a Service (MAAAS) focused on the ‘how’ and Marketing Strategy as a Service (MSAAS) focused on the ‘why’ and ‘what’ – crystallized this choice.

This analysis, grounded in evidence available before February 2019, strongly suggests that while marketing activity is undeniably necessary, it is fundamentally insufficient and potentially counterproductive when pursued without a clear, customer-centric, and data-informed strategic direction. Relying solely on MAAAS providers to “get marketing done” without the guidance of a robust internal strategy or an MSAAS partner invites significant risks: wasted resources on misaligned tactics, strategic blindness akin to marketing myopia, performance measurement obscured by vanity metrics, vulnerability to vendor lock-in, and the erosion of marketing’s strategic influence within the organization. The historical failures of once-dominant companies serve as potent reminders that operational efficiency in executing flawed or outdated strategies leads not to success, but to decline.⁷⁸

Conversely, a commitment to strategic marketing – whether cultivated internally or accessed through MSAAS – provides the essential foundation for navigating complexity and achieving sustainable success. Strategy defines the target customer, clarifies the value proposition, sets meaningful objectives aligned with business goals, guides resource allocation, and ensures adaptability to market dynamics.¹⁴ It provides the engine for growth and the compass for direction. Marketing activities, then, become the fuel – necessary for motion, but only effective when powering a well-designed engine pointed towards the right destination.

Looking forward from that pre-2019 vantage point, the trajectory was clear. Organizations embracing a strategy-first approach, leveraging deep customer understanding (through tools like CJM), harnessing data for insight, and potentially engaging MSAAS partners focused on value creation and empowerment, were positioning themselves for greater resilience and long-term growth. Those remaining mired in a purely tactical, activity-based mode risked falling behind. The anticipated rise of more sophisticated personalization capabilities and the burgeoning potential of artificial intelligence in marketing ¹¹² would only amplify the imperative for strong strategic guidance. Without a clear strategy, these powerful new tools risked becoming merely more sophisticated ways to execute the wrong plan.

Therefore, the enduring lesson from the pre-2019 marketing landscape is the paramount importance of strategic clarity. Business leaders and marketers must consciously evaluate their approaches and partnerships, ensuring that every marketing activity serves a well-defined strategic purpose. The focus must shift from merely being busy to being effective, ensuring that activity always serves strategy, never the other way around.