Making a dog’s dinner of service

Your article “Silver servants” (MW June 19) strikes at the heart of the challenge facing marketing. Building a compelling brand promise is fast becoming a given – it’s the brand’s ability to deliver against that promise that will prove the real differentiator. In other words, promise without delivery is a bit like lipstick on a bulldog.

So how’s marketing facing up to the challenge? Poorly, in my view. For starters, how many marketing directors can lay claim to being the champion of great customer service? How many brands truly reflect internally the same values and personality they seek to project externally? Moreover, critically, what proportion of the marketing budget is directed towards the internal audience, the ultimate deliverer of the brand?

For too long, marketing has existed on the fringes of the organisation, largely detached from the people (internally) who matter most. However, to meet this challenge is to return marketing to its rightful place, at the heart of the business and the brand.

Paul Roberts

Marketing director

Enterprise IG Business & Brand Engagement

Hampton Wick, Surrey