Ashley Faus

Real talk: We need to make marketing MARKETING again.


I started college as a musical theater major.

I had a medical issue with my vocal cords my freshman year, and that led me to realize that I needed to change my major.

I stumbled into a Marketing 101 class.

The opening line of the textbook read, "Marketing is about people."

I shut the book and declared my new major.

I got into marketing because I fundamentally believe that it's about matching problems with solutions for people.

And y'all, I'm not feeling like my profession is still about matching problems with solutions for people right now.

Look at the proliferation of trendy titles and teams: GTM Engineer, Full-Stack Marketer, Prompt Engineer, Marketing Ops, Martech...

They say "marketer", but the entire set of problems and skills is focused on tools, with a heavy emphasis on AI.

And look, we NEED people who care about tools, systems, and processes.

But those people AREN'T marketers!

If I focus on creating the perfect cake pans, I manufacture cake pans, and I troubleshoot the metal for cake pans, am I baker, or a cake pan specialist?

If I design sound boards, install sound boards, and handle maintenance on sound boards, am I an actor, or a sound board engineer?

If I install workout benches, re-cover workout benches, and clean workout benches, am I a bodybuilder, or an equipment specialist?

In any other domain, we'd see that the people who design, produce, and maintain the tools and equipment AREN'T the same as the people who use the tools to deliver outcomes.

The tools and the outcomes are distinct!

So why do we insist that the marketers become the tooling specialists!?!

If I wanted to be an engineer, I would've chosen computer science when I switched majors.

If I wanted to do ops and process optimization, I would've majored in operations.

But I chose marketing, precisely because I want to be a MARKETER.

Just like I'm a baker, a performer, and a bodybuilder.

My call-to-action: Make marketing MARKETING again.

I sit at the intersection of Product Marketing, Content Marketing, and Demand-Gen, and I spend quite a bit of time ensuring that we have strong narratives across all of our assets and channels.

The thing is... narratives are NOT the same as a positioning statement or a message house 😅

And narratives do NOT map to funnel stages.

The funnel is a retrospective measurement tool, not a forward-looking strategy tool.

The audience doesn't go in a linear journey that ends in a purchase.

They move up, down, and sideways... more like they're moving through a playground.

This means that as marketers, we need to design a journey that's smart: seamless, delightful, and impactful, no matter which path the audience takes.

How?

By mapping our narratives at different depths, so we've got a cohesive set of stories and ideas across EVERYTHING.

(PS - Need more details on mapping your audience journeys for trust, conversion, and growth? Grab a copy of my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI" 😀)