Is marketing about creating greater engagement or increasing sales?

Kelly Claudius from the Australian Marketing Institute, moderated a Panel Discussion around “Is marketing about creating greater engagement or increasing sales?”

Panelists included:

Deirdre Boyle, Head of Marketing and Digital, AIA
Nicole McInnes, Chief Marketing Officer, OVO Mobile
Russell Schulman, Head of Marketing and eCommerce, Krispy Kreme

Organisations are often marketing-led or sales-led, but how often are they customer-led? Customers can impact revenue in two ways: they’re both necessary to maintaining existing revenue and the key to unlocking future revenue.

While marketing is shifting from talking at people and focusing on transactions, to engaging with people – building meaningful, life-long, and personalised relationships, we must ask where the focus truly lies.

Has the focus on engagement made modern marketers soft?

Have we have lost the art of asking for the sale?

Is marketing ultimately about driving sales?

Can success still be achieved without a conversion?

Are they mutually exclusive?