Growth Marketing – the New Paradigm

During our careers we have seen three major paradigms dominate marketing. Each in their day was the next big thing, but as economic conditions changed and marketing technology evolved, each one fell out of fashion.

Writing now in 2025, it’s possible today that marketing has come full circle, and can once again be seen to be inexorably linked to business performance, and more specifically growth. First though, a quick journey back in time.

First came the era of Product Marketing; marketing driven by the belief that customers buy product differences and differentials.  That encapsulated the prolonged period when marketers chased the product’s Unique Selling Proposition or USP.  

Innovation ("now with added X") was an end itself, enough to make a customer choose and buy.  "Build it and they will come" was the mantra.  At its worst this became the marketing of minute differences or the dreary pursuit of marketing kaizen.

 Who the product is for? How does it work? What is the specific problem that it solves? How is your solution different from that of your competitor? These are all critical questions, but in 2025 not perhaps enough in themselves.  They are a sound discipline that should inform any robust marketing strategy, but they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. 

Next came the fetishism of Brand Marketing, where the brand was elevated to an almost sacral level. It was a time when the application of brand to everything from products to politicians quickly led to the most partial and superficial idea of how brands really work.  

Childish anthropomorphism and a wholly unrealistic and unproven idea of how people relate to brands became prevalent.  A lavatory detergent being classified as a 'Love Brand' alongside Apple.  The concept of brand became increasingly divorced from the product and service it was purporting to sell. 

In this time, the hard work of fixing the underlying products and services was abandoned in favour of building brand worlds, and the careful crafting of brand purposes.  

We believe brands are absolutely critical to effective marketing.  A strong and distinctive brand identity is critical if one wants to be 'found' in the category and to convert engagement into sales, prospects into customers. Equally, building a well-chosen set of values around the brand provide a powerful anchor for loyalty, and the best defence against pricing pressures. But, brand is not itself the totality of the answer, whatever some might tell you.

Next up, the explosive growth of digital channels - PPC and social - over recent years has allowed business to reach and interact with customers in totally new, personally engaging ways.  Digital Marketing quickly became the marketers' best friend: measurement, recognised metrics and the opportunity to pay-by-performance were all irresistible. Finally, it was said, proof of the impact of marketing efforts.  But proof of what impact? Clicks? Likes? 

 Digital Marketing, rather than being treated like a choice of new channels, should now provide the foundations and framework for any company marketing model, with the wonderful power to take potential customers all the way through the sales funnel, tracked at every step of the way.  It’s part of the story, not the whole story.

All of this means that it is time for a new, elevated form of marketing.  

One where the preoccupation is with the business objective, not the marketing mechanic, and where the role of marketing is aligned with the rest of the business. It should serve the rest of the business, not the other way round.

After years of debt and acquisition-led growth, companies must now grow organically, building their business from the inside.

We believe that it is time for a different sort of marketing; one that squarely addresses the circumstances and imperatives of our time.  A new sort of marketing, one that encapsulates the very best of the Product, Brand and Digital paradigms in marketing.  It's about strong brands, built on well-articulated product narratives, and delivered within an integrated and adaptive digital marketing ecosystem, all directed towards the singular objective of growth.

We call this Growth Marketing.