Strongly agree. Most of the time when people blame marketing, the real issue is nobody sat down and decided who they're selling to, what problem actually matters, or what "good" even looks like. I've seen this play out with clients burning $500k+ a month - the blame lands on creative or channels, but the ICP was shifting weekly and the offer was a confused mess. That's a strategy vacuum, not a marketing failure.
But I've also seen the flip side: teams using "strategy" as a shield for lazy execution. Weak creative, wrong distribution, bad messaging - those are real marketing problems. The framework I use is: decide first, then amplify. If the positioning isn't clear, no amount of split testing or budget scaling will save you. Get the decisions right, then make the ads sing. 😤
