Marketing is often described as a communication function.
That definition isn’t wrong—but it’s definitely incomplete.
If all marketing does is communicate, then it’s just talking. And in business, we already do a lot of that. Meetings, decks, announcements, campaigns, roadmaps. Words are everywhere.
What’s often missing isn’t communication. It’s alignment.
When marketing is treated as infrastructure—rooted in a consistent narrative and applied with discipline—it becomes less about talking and more about coordinating people toward a shared set of goals.
Why “Communication” Is an Incomplete Definition of Marketing
Communication assumes that once something is said clearly enough, it will work.
But clarity without alignment doesn’t create progress. It creates noise.
Marketing should communicate a specific story to a specific group of people—consistently, over time—in service of defined outcomes. That requires focus, not volume.
It’s rarely about being everywhere, saying everything or reacting to every opportunity. More often, it’s about omission. What you choose not to say. Who you choose not to serve. Which platforms, campaigns or narratives you intentionally leave behind.
Output is visible. Alignment is harder to see—but far more powerful.
Communication Without Coordination Creates Noise
When marketing is treated primarily as a communications function, it’s often asked to respond to symptoms rather than causes.
Requests sound like:
- “We need better messaging.”
- “Sales conversations aren’t landing.”
- “The market doesn’t seem to get us.”
- “We need a campaign for this.”
Individually, these requests make sense. Collectively, they signal a lack of coordination.
Marketing can refine language. It can produce assets. But if teams aren’t aligned on priorities, tradeoffs and direction, every new message adds friction instead of momentum.
That’s when marketing starts to feel reactive—constantly revising, restarting and chasing clarity it doesn’t control.
Marketing as the Coordination Layer
In practice, marketing coordinates far more than most organizations acknowledge.
It translates leadership intent into language teams can actually use—whether that’s the story supporting a business plan or the materials employees rely on in customer conversations.
It navigates competing priorities across:
- Brand and long-term credibility
- Growth targets and GTM pressure
- Sales commitments and delivery reality
Marketing also bridges the often wider gap between strategy and reality—the lofty decisions made in boardrooms and the lived experience of customers, partners and employees.
This is coordination work. Not just communication.
What Breaks When Coordination Is Missing
When marketing isn’t positioned—or empowered—to coordinate, predictable issues emerge.
Silos
Marketing says one thing. Sales promises another. Delivery provides something else entirely. Agencies see this in wildly inconsistent client experiences. Product organizations see it in uneven satisfaction across segments.
Marketing is asked to compensate for misalignment it didn’t create—and cannot fix.
Conflicting priorities
Marketing goals don’t match sales targets. Delivery operates from a different playbook. These priorities eventually collide—and when they do, you find out what the organization actually values.
Tactical churn
Plans reset. Campaigns change. Goals shift. Nothing feels core because nothing is anchored.
Two red flags often follow:
- Employee churn: The story that attracted people breaks down, and trust erodes.
- Customer churn: Same problem, different consequence. The promise isn’t reinforced or fulfilled.
At inflection points—growth spurts, pivots, leadership changes—this breakdown accelerates. Without a narrative to hold certain truths steady, everything becomes negotiable. Focus disappears. Chaos fills the gap.
How Narrative Enables Coordination
Coordination requires a shared frame of reference.
A clear narrative provides that frame. Not as storytelling, but as operating context.
It enables:
- Shared language teams can use consistently
- Decision clarity when priorities compete
- Focus as the organizing principle—not variety or constant change
With narrative in place, organizations don’t need more campaigns. They need fewer, more intentional ones. Yeses and nos come faster. Rework declines. Momentum builds.
Marketing stops resetting every quarter because the core holds.
Coordination Depends on a Shared Operating Narrative
You can’t coordinate what you haven’t aligned.
If teams don’t agree on who the company is, who it serves and what it’s building toward, marketing can only communicate fragments. And fragments don’t scale.
This is why coordination depends on narrative functioning as an operating system—not a messaging layer.
I dig into this more in Narrative Is Not Storytelling. It’s an Operating System, exploring how narrative creates that foundation and holds certain truths steady while everything else evolves.
Marketing doesn’t fail because it communicates poorly. It fails when it’s never allowed to coordinate.
