Your Marketing Isn’t Failing. Your Decision System Can’t Handle Economic Reality.
Markets behave economically. Your business usually doesn't. As you scale, costs rise and efficiency declines, that's not a failure, it's a law of physics. The problem isn't your marketing; it's a decision system that follows arbitrary shortcuts instead of economic signals.
Why Marketing Strategy Usually Isn’t Strategy
A content calendar is not a strategy. An attribution model is not a strategy. SEO is not a strategy. Most marketing departments are just very good at optimizing a machine that was built on a wish instead of a choice. If you can’t name the tradeoff your marketing is making, you don’t have a strategy, you have a schedule.
That’s Not a Strategy. It’s a Wish.
Growth is not a strategy. Revenue targets are not a strategy. Market leadership is not a strategy. Most 'strategic plans' are just a collection of wishes that avoid the one thing real strategy requires: a painful tradeoff. If your decision doesn’t involve a meaningful sacrifice, it isn’t strategy, it’s just aspiration.
KPI Theatre: When Marketing Metrics Steal the Spotlight but Miss the Plot
Your dashboards sparkle. ROAS looks great. CAC is “on target.”
So why isn’t the business growing?
In this provocative blog, we unpack the phenomenon of KPI Theatre; where marketing metrics are optimized for applause, not impact. If you’re a CMO, founder, or exec tired of vanity dashboards and misaligned incentives, this is your wake-up call.
Reframe your metrics. Rewrite the script.