Most brands are investing more than ever in marketing, advertising and content. Yet results remain stagnant. Campaigns keep getting flashier and reports more extensive but growth does not follow. The problem is not a lack of budget or creativity.

It is that marketing as it is practiced today has lost its strategic direction. It has stopped guiding the business and has been reduced to the final step which is communication and advertising.

The biggest pain point for brands today

It is a fact that one of the most pressing challenges for business owners and marketing managers not only in Greece but also internationally is that they invest in marketing, advertising and communication yet the results do not meet their expectations. We encounter this in almost every request we receive from both large and small to medium sized businesses in Greece. This is not a matter of isolated cases but a recurring pattern across companies of every sector and scale.

Why does this happen

This happens because marketing has lost its coherence consistency and discipline. Most companies invest in communication activities that they label as marketing rather than in actual marketing strategy. They focus on maintaining a presence in the media running campaigns and producing content without first answering the fundamental questions such as who are our target audiences what are our goals what does our product do well how do we differentiate from competition what is the message we need to communicate what positioning do we want to occupy in people’s minds and what behavior we aim to influence. As a result marketing is reduced to activity and tactics losing its strategic essence.

1. Lack of strategic foundation

Many companies start from the question what are we going to do instead of why are we doing it and who are we doing it for. But marketing strategy is not a list of actions. It is the set of choices that determine where the business will focus how it will differentiate and how it will measure success. When this foundation is missing every action operates in isolation and the investment ends up dissipating without creating meaningful impact.

2. Excessive focus on short term results

The pressure for immediate ROI leads many companies to evaluate marketing effectiveness through metrics like clicks leads or impressions. While this approach is necessary at a tactical level it often results in inconsistency and short term orientation. Research by Binet and Field has shown that brands investing exclusively in short term activities lose market share over time. Striking the right balance between brand building and performance remains the most reliable driver of sustainable long term growth.

3. Confusion between communication and marketing

Advertising content and social media are communication tools not marketing itself. Marketing is the strategic decision making framework that shapes the product or the entire product portfolio pricing distribution audience targeting and the position the brand will occupy in the minds of the people it aims to reach. When marketing is reduced to a communication layer it loses its role as a growth engine for the business and needs to reclaim its fundamental strategic function.

4. Lack of internal alignment

In many cases marketing operates in isolation from management sales or product teams. At RISTART we experience this every time we are asked to design and implement a marketing plan. The absence of a unified direction from leadership down to sales and support creates fragmentation and becomes a serious obstacle to any effort. Marketing should be a central pillar of the organization working horizontally across all functions so that communication reflects the overall business strategy.

5. Insufficient measurement and accountability

The lack of clear goals and measurement frameworks makes it almost impossible to assess effectiveness. Most organizations do not have a unified evaluation system for their marketing activities nor clear KPIs that link communication to business performance. As experienced strategic advisors often point out what is not properly defined cannot be measured and what is not measured cannot be improved.

Conclusion

The problem is not that marketing does not work or that marketing managers are inadequate. The problem is that in most cases the right process is not followed gaps are created and this leads to the false conclusion that marketing is ineffective. Success in marketing does not come from isolated and disconnected tactics but from strategic consistency alignment with the business and systematic measurement. Only then can marketing investment generate meaningful measurable and sustainable growth.

Marketing in an identity crisis

Listening to the conversations happening among marketers globally at major conferences like Cannes Lions and Effie Global Forums as well as through the vidcasts of marketing professionals whose approach I deeply respect it becomes clear that marketing is going through an identity crisis. There is an open acknowledgment that in many companies marketing has lost its strategic role and now operates more as a content production hub than as a growth engine. CMOs and marketing managers speak openly about the pressure to demonstrate impact on the P&L the growing demand for accountability and the shift from simple communication activities to strategies that build long term value.

The conversation is increasingly focused on measurability effectiveness and the need for marketing to reclaim its role as a business driver. Particular emphasis is placed on bringing strategy back to the center as more and more experts highlight the dangers of tactics first marketing meaning the execution of activities without a strategic framework.

WARC and IPA have described this as a short termism epidemic a trend that leads to wasted budgets and a lack of accumulated value for brands. At the same time the influence of Byron Sharp and Binet & Field is particularly strong as major forums emphasize the importance of continuously building mental availability brand consistency and long term brand equity to avoid the trap of short term tactics that fail to create memory or sustainable growth. This is the essence of the global conversation that I aim to analyze and bring into the Greek market.

Why so many brands see zero growth

In many companies the marketing budget is absorbed by campaigns that impress with their aesthetics win awards or generate plenty of views but fail to bring in new customers increase sales or build mental availability in the consumer’s mind.

This happens because creativity takes precedence over strategy. The focus shifts from what we need to do to achieve our goals to what nice thing we can make. Marketing teams are often under pressure to create actions and produce content simply to fill channels and demonstrate activity. As a result these initiatives become an end in themselves fragmented and disconnected from the business objective.

The most common reasons for failure

The first reason is the lack of a strategic framework. Without clear goals timelines and KPIs every action operates in isolation and the company cannot assess whether the investment is delivering results. Then come the so called vanity metrics. Reports get filled with numbers that look good in presentations, likes views reach, but have no real connection to business performance.

Next are the fragmented actions carried out opportunistically with no continuity or cohesive narrative which weakens the brand’s ability to build recognition. Finally the absence of systematic long term measurement and reporting makes it impossible to optimize the strategy and make the right adjustments.

Why vanity metrics are a trap

Likes views and impressions are indicators of attention but they do not tell the full story. A video may have 100,000 views but not a single viewer converts into a lead and the brand may not even be associated with the content. A campaign may generate millions of impressions and yet sales or even brand recall remain stagnant. This creates a false sense of success and leads teams to repeat actions that have no real impact.

The result is a gradual erosion of trust in marketing as management sees spending without tangible return. Real value comes only when actions are tied to business KPIs such as sales leads market share or brand health metrics that prove the brand is building medium term growth.

What an effective marketing strategy really means

A strong strategy starts with the business objectives. When the marketer speaks with management they ask for the goals that have been set and if they do not exist they help define them. If the goal is to increase sales by 10 percent expand into a new market or boost customer loyalty then marketing must be designed to serve those objectives. This means a clear brief well defined communication goals and measurable KPIs. Only then does it make sense for creativity to step in and give shape and life to the strategy.

In an ideal scenario the marketing manager is involved in product creation because ideally they have listened to the market spoken to customers understood their needs and returned to the company with insights that guide product development. If the product is already defined the marketer needs to analyze it thoroughly study the competition identify the audience and make strategic decisions about what to communicate where to do it how to do it and what to achieve through it.

The one certainty in marketing is that creativity without strategy is like a beautiful painting in a gallery. Many people look at it few understand it even fewer are willing to buy it and in the end only one does. When there is a strategic framework every effort and every euro invested in marketing works in the same direction allowing the company to measure progress understand what works and continuously improve the outcome.

RISTART’s approach

At RISTART we have developed a method that ensures every marketing activity is aligned with the overall business purpose. Nothing happens by chance. Behind every action there is strategic analysis planning and then execution. If our research reveals gaps in the brand we take a step back and work on its structural elements before moving forward with the marketing strategy. Performance is monitored continuously and the necessary adjustments are made to optimize results. This research analysis strategy execution measurement and optimization cycle is what ensures that marketing contributes not only to achieving goals but also to driving organizational growth.

For example we collaborated for seven years with Agris the leading horticulture company in Southeastern Europe with a strong presence in several Balkan countries. Before starting we designed a comprehensive growth plan for both the Greek and international markets. We built a multi layer sales funnel tailored to different segments from large scale clients to smaller customers across various countries.

We combined brand awareness customer engagement and performance marketing initiatives implementing both online and offline activities and tracked the progress of the plan systematically with the commercial director almost every month. The result was that every year outperformed the previous one commercially. This illustrates how we approach every project with strategy methodical planning and continuous optimization.

Marketing is not art – it is a growth engine

Our philosophy is simple. Marketing is about getting into the customer’s mind so that when they search for products like yours they choose you. As simple and as difficult as that. Marketing is not a creativity contest and companies are not galleries showcasing beautiful paintings. Marketing is a tool for growth.

Without strategy even the most impressive creative work fails to deliver results. Marketers must focus on measurable outcomes such as leads sales and market share and invest in partners who bring strategic thinking and methodical execution. When marketing becomes systematic when we measure what truly matters and when activities are connected with each other it transforms into a real growth engine rather than just a cost center.

If you are a decision maker ask your team or your agency to show you exactly how they link their marketing activities to real growth metrics. If they cannot prove it then it may be time to revisit your strategy.