Marketers mistakenly define their value by function ("Capital M" marketing like ads). Their greater, untapped value is their way of thinking ("small m" marketing): a deep understanding of human perception and customer perspective, which has applications far beyond the marketing department.

The greatest value from advertising professionals is their unique approach to problem-solving. This thinking should be applied to core business challenges like pricing, product, and customer experience, repositioning the industry's value beyond just communications.

Adobe's CMO argues the best B2B marketers focus on customer problems and tell great stories to evoke excitement about potential, just like consumer brands. B2B marketing shouldn't be boring or purely functional; it must be creative and innovative.

For years, marketers could succeed with mediocre creative by optimizing media buys. As platforms automate targeting, creative excellence is now the primary lever for success. An organization that doesn't respect and elevate creativity across the entire marketing function is destined to underperform.

Ad agencies possess immense creative problem-solving talent but narrowly confine it to communication campaigns. They could deliver enormous value by redesigning a menu's choice architecture or fixing customer journey friction, but don't because clients lack the job titles and procurement processes to buy such "trivia."

Small business owners often feel intimidated by the term "marketing," viewing it as a complex discipline they haven't mastered. By reframing the task as simply "telling your story," they tap into their natural passion and authenticity, which becomes their most powerful and effective marketing asset.

Successful CMOs treat marketing as a discipline to be taught across the company, not a function to be guarded. Their role is to seduce and influence finance, sales, and operations by bringing them into the marketing mindset, rather than just learning their language.

Marketing struggles for board-level respect because it focuses on tactical outputs like ads ('what we do') rather than its strategic mindset of customer-centric value creation ('how we think'). Shifting the narrative from tactical execution to strategic thinking elevates marketing's perceived importance within an organization.

Analysis of B2B marketing shows that ABX is not a discipline where creative execution typically shines. Instead of fighting this, marketers should embed robust, data-driven thought leadership into their programs. This approach effectively shifts buyer perceptions and builds trust without relying on traditional creativity.