The Disconnect Between Brand and Performance
And 8 Ways to Fix It
Customer journeys used to be linear.
They aren’t anymore.
Today’s buyers bounce between product pages, support chats, TikToks, emails, and in-store activations—expecting it all to feel like one conversation.
When it doesn’t, the experience breaks.
And they move on.
Behind that broken experience is a broken structure. One team optimizes for impressions. Another for ROAS. One wants storytelling. Another needs efficiency. Campaigns drift. Offers overlap. Signals get missed. Momentum stalls. Brand equity crumbles.
The root issue is design.
8 Ways to Fix It
To transform a broken marketing structure into a high-functioning, “positionless” team, marketers can lead deliberate changes in strategy, technology, and culture.
Here’s an actionable roadmap to align with modern, nonlinear customer journeys:
1️⃣ Map and Prioritize the Customer Journey
Chart every touchpoint—online and offline—and identify where the experience breaks. Are support agents unaware of promotions customers saw on TikTok? Are emails advertising sales that aren’t reflected in-store? Use this mapping to align all departments around moments that matter, so no team operates detached from the full journey.
2️⃣ Create a Single Source of Truth for Data
Siloed data leads to siloed decisions. Centralize customer and marketing data into one live system accessible to all teams. When everyone works off the same insights, teams can respond faster with consistent context. Audit your current analytics stack and move toward a unified dashboard for customer metrics and campaign performance.
3️⃣ Align on One Customer-Centric Vision and Goals
Ensure every team is working toward a unified customer experience rather than separate departmental KPIs. Establish shared success metrics—customer lifetime value, NPS, cross-channel conversion rates—alongside revenue. Make these goals explicit, tie them to all campaigns, and reinforce them in planning sessions.
4️⃣ Restructure Teams to Break Silos
High-performing marketing orgs form cross-functional pods—combining creative, performance, analytics, and CX roles around customer segments or campaigns. This mirrors “positionless marketing,” empowering team members to flex across specialties and act without handoffs. Encourage T-shaped skills through training and rotations to build versatility while retaining specialists for deep work.
5️⃣ Establish Shared Planning, Calendars, and Playbooks
Develop a unified campaign calendar and brand playbook to avoid fragmented execution. Hold joint planning sessions to align promotions, messaging, and timing across channels. A practical brand playbook ensures every touchpoint feels consistent, while a shared campaign calendar prevents overlaps and timing conflicts.
6️⃣ Foster Always-On Cross-Team Communication
Replace quarterly silos with ongoing collaboration. Implement weekly cross-functional stand-ups where teams openly share insights and performance updates. Use Slack channels or shared workspaces to maintain live conversations across teams, building a culture where collaboration is habit, not an afterthought.
7️⃣ Realign Incentives and Accountability
Siloed incentives undermine collaboration. Tie bonuses and evaluations to shared, customer-focused metrics rather than channel-only KPIs. When teams are rewarded for collective success, they work together to deliver seamless customer experiences.
8️⃣ Upgrade Technology to Enable Agility
Equip teams with tech that enables real-time collaboration, integrated analytics, and fast adjustments. Use project management boards, shared creative libraries, and customer data platforms that allow everyone to see up-to-date information. Use AI and automation to act on signals instantly, helping teams move at the speed of the customer.
By executing this roadmap, enterprise retail CMOs can transform fragmented teams into a unified, customer-centered marketing engine. Buyers experience the brand as one seamless conversation. Insights translate into action in real time.
Brand and performance don’t compete—they compound.
When teams share context, operate from a unified view of the customer, and have systems that support real collaboration, everything accelerates. Messaging adapts. Campaigns align. Execution tightens. Relevance improves because feedback is live.
That’s what positionless marketing enables: a system where teams move fluidly, work from the same inputs, and act on insights without waiting for permission. Structure bends to the customer, not the other way around.
The teams that win aren’t the loudest or the biggest.
They’re the best wired.
✌🏽SR