By Robert Ebo Hinson(Prof)
In a rapidly evolving global economy defined by digital disruption, heightened consumer expectations, and urgent calls for sustainability, marketing must be understood not merely as a function but as a strategic integrator of multiple organizational and societal imperatives.
To capture this broader mandate, marketing can be reconceptualized as a Pentagonal Construct, comprising five interrelated pillars:
- Marketing as Technology Innovation
- Marketing as Customer Management
- Marketing as a Societal and Sustainability Construct
- Marketing as Brand Communication
- Marketing as Product Management
This framework provides a holistic and integrated lens through which organizations—particularly in emerging markets—can rethink marketing’s evolving role.
- Marketing as Technology Innovation
At the core of 21st-century marketing lies technology-enabled value creation. Marketing today is inseparable from the data, platforms, and algorithms that define consumer engagement and decision-making.
Key Dimensions:
- Digital Transformation: From websites to apps, CRMs to programmatic advertising, modern marketing is powered by martech ecosystems that enable personalization, automation, and scale.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Predictive analytics, recommendation engines, and AI-generated content are revolutionizing how marketers understand and interact with consumers.
- Innovation Diffusion: Marketing facilitates the adoption of new technologies through early-market education, influencer engagement, and experience design.
Implications: Marketing is no longer just a communicator of innovation—it is a driver of innovation. It must collaborate with R&D, IT, and operations to shape products and experiences that are digitally native and user-centric.
- Marketing as Customer Management
Customer-centricity is a timeless tenet of marketing. In this construct, marketing is viewed as the custodian of customer relationships, charged with acquiring, retaining, and growing customer value.
Key Dimensions:
- Customer Experience (CX): Beyond satisfaction lies the holistic journey across touchpoints. Great CX requires seamless service delivery, personalization, and emotional resonance.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Data-driven segmentation and lifecycle management foster long-term loyalty and reduced churn.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Marketers must prioritize high-value segments and allocate resources to optimize value over volume.
Implications: Marketing as customer management demands a shift from campaign-based thinking to relationship-based orchestration—focusing not on transactions but on transformation.
- Marketing as a Societal and Sustainability Construct
In an era of climate urgency and stakeholder capitalism, marketing must embrace its role as a force for societal good. It can shape not just consumption but conscious consumption.
Key Dimensions: Sustainable Branding: Marketing can lead sustainability positioning, telling stories of circularity, community impact, and ethical sourcing.
- Social Innovation: Marketing insights can drive new models for inclusive business, base-of-the-pyramid marketing, and shared value creation.
- Cultural Stewardship: Marketers shape societal narratives on gender, race, wellness, and dignity through the platforms and content they fund and amplify.
Implications: Marketing is not neutral; it either reinforces or reshapes cultural norms. This pillar calls for marketing that is ethically grounded, future-aware, and inclusive.
- Marketing as Brand Communication
Traditionally the most visible face of marketing, this pillar emphasizes strategic storytelling, image crafting, and identity management.
Key Dimensions: Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): A synergy of owned, earned, and paid media to ensure consistent messaging across platforms.
- Positioning and Differentiation: Crafting a unique space in the mind of the customer by highlighting value, relevance, and authenticity.
- Reputation Management: In the age of cancel culture and social media virality, brand trust is fragile. Marketing must proactively manage narratives.
Implications: Brand communication today goes beyond advertising. It requires strategic narrative design, rooted in purpose, and adaptable to real-time feedback loops.
- Marketing as Product Management
No amount of promotion can save a poor product. Here, marketing is understood as a strategic partner in product ideation, development, and lifecycle management.
Key Dimensions:
- Market Research and Voice of Customer (VoC): Identifying unmet needs and translating insights into product features.
- Design Thinking: Applying empathy, ideation, prototyping, and iteration to co-create meaningful solutions.
- Go-to-Market Strategy: Pricing, packaging, distribution, and timing all fall under the marketer’s lens in ensuring commercial success.
Implications: Product is part of the marketing mix. Thus, marketing must move upstream in strategy development, playing a key role from concept to commercial success.
Conclusion: Integrative Marketing for a Complex World
Viewing marketing as a Pentagonal Construct helps leaders and practitioners transcend silos and short-termism. It demands that marketing:
- Partners with IT and innovation teams to enable tech-powered growth,
- Leads enterprise-wide CX and relationship strategies,
- Acts as a societal conscience and sustainability advocate,
- Crafts resonant brand narratives with cultural empathy,
- Guides product strategy from ideation through strategic rejuvenation to eventual obsolescence.
In this framing, marketing becomes not just a business function but a strategic philosophy—a way of thinking, building, and serving that is agile, ethical, and future-ready.
