Why Tactical and Strategic Actions Must Work Together in Marketing Transformation

The tension at the heart of marketing transformation

In today’s marketing environment, leaders can’t afford to choose between quick wins and long-term bets. Both are essential.

The rise of AI, shifting customer expectations, and relentless competition mean that tactical fixes keep the lights on, but strategy keeps you in the game. The real challenge is learning how to balance the two: delivering results today without undermining tomorrow.

Bain & Company puts it simply: marketing transformation should drive both immediate impact and future growth. Without this balance, companies risk chasing short-term wins that weaken their ability to compete in the long run.

Why tactical fixes alone won't deliver marketing transformation

Every organisation has urgent fires to fight: underperforming campaigns, clunky processes, wasted spend. Tackling these is vital. But if quick fixes aren’t tied to a bigger plan, you’re just reacting.

Mark Ritson has long criticised the “tactification” of marketing — where activity (another SEO tweak, another performance campaign) is mistaken for progress. Without a strategic backbone, businesses risk boosting sales this quarter but eroding loyalty next year.

I’ve seen this happen again and again. A fast-growing online payments platform invested heavily in digital advertising to drive short-term sales. It worked, briefly. But because those campaigns weren’t anchored in the brand’s long-term strategy or supported by the right marketing capabilities, the 'gains' quickly evaporated. The company was left exposed vs. competitors with stronger brands (bigger budgets) and more integrated marketing approaches.

The strategic side of marketing transformation: preparing for seismic shifts

At the same time, no leadership team can afford to ignore the bigger picture. AI is rewriting how marketing works, customers expect more personalisation with every interaction, and new competitors are only ever a click away.

Scott Galloway often warns that if companies don’t adapt to these shifts, they fall behind. Even in private equity — where short-term returns are king — investors are increasingly realising that marketing must be future-proofed, not just patched.

The learning: tactics may solve today’s pain, but strategy is what keeps you relevant tomorrow.

Case in point: turning strategy into action

In a project I led with a major entertainment group in the UK and Ireland, the business had grown through multiple M&A deals but its marketing teams remained siloed. Each brand ran its own campaigns with little integration, meaning the group wasn’t leveraging its scale.

They had no shortage of strategy on paper. Working directly with the leadership and marketing teams, my role was to make strategy feel actionable.

One of the big priorities was improving measurement: using data to optimise ROI and make smarter budget choices. That required heavy lifting on infrastructure and martech. But waiting a year for perfect systems wasn’t an option.

So we built a minimum viable dashboard in a few weeks. It wasn’t polished, but it gave leaders visibility into performance and trade-offs straight away across the brands. Suddenly conversations shifted from gut feel to evidence. Those quick wins gave the teams confidence that transformation was real, not another “strategy in a slide deck.”

This is the power of combining tactical delivery with strategic vision: early wins create momentum, while the long-term foundations get built in parallel.

This photo is from one of my local hiking routes — a reminder that perspective matters. In marketing transformation, as in hiking, you need both the immediate steps and the long view to reach your destination.

Three ways to align tactics and strategy in marketing transformation

How can leaders ensure they’re delivering both immediate results and future-proofed growth? Three principles stand out:

1. Set dual-track objectives. Pair short-term KPIs (efficiency, campaign performance, conversion) with long-term goals (brand equity, customer lifetime value).

   
   

2. Work cross-functionally. Tactical fixes often sit within marketing, but strategic shifts require alignment across marketing, product, and technology.

   
   

3. Treat tactics as experiments. Pilot projects — whether AI tools, new media channels, or data dashboards — are quick wins, but also valuable tests of strategic hypotheses.

The bottom line: making marketing transformation real

Marketing transformation isn’t about choosing between tactics and strategy. It’s about learning to make them work together.

As David Aaker, the “father of modern branding,” reminds us: every action should contribute to long-term brand equity and positioning. Without that integration, companies risk short-term gains at the expense of sustainable advantage.

The businesses that thrive in today’s market are those that can deliver immediate results and hold onto a clear vision of where they’re going. Quick wins and long-term bets, working in tandem, are what make transformation real.