Startup CXO

Chapter 45Breaking Down Marketing's Functions

The three primary foundations of marketing—brand, sales, and culture—are not standalone, esoteric ideas but are actually supported by seven primary functions: Brand, Digital, Events, Content and Communications, Product Marketing, Operations, and Sales Development. Depending on the needs of the business and the size of the marketing organization, how you execute against these functions and organize your team may be wildly different. For a startup, one individual may cover multiple or all of these responsibilities, while a scaleup may have teams of contributors supporting each function.

No matter the size of your marketing team or the business itself, no matter whether you're a B2B, B2C, or nonprofit, no matter whether you have no budget or an unlimited budget, it is essential to understand the value each function brings to the overall marketing strategy and the ways in which they can intersect in order to get more out of each campaign and deliver maximum impact.

Brand

As we've discussed already, building and maintaining the company brand are the primary responsibility of Marketing. Your brand is not only the visual elements—the logo, color pallet, and supporting design elements—it's also the textual elements—the tone and personality you want to convey and the core messaging behind those elements. The combination of these is the driving force behind everything Marketing creates. It's not uncommon for people to think of the brand ...