Marketing is often one of the first budgets questioned when businesses face pressure. In boardrooms across the UK, marketing spend is frequently scrutinised, reduced, or paused altogether in favour of what feel like more immediate operational priorities.
This usually stems from a false assumption: that marketing is a cost rather than a growth lever. When viewed purely as an expense, marketing becomes vulnerable during uncertain periods, despite the fact that it underpins visibility, credibility, and long-term demand.
Undervaluing marketing rarely causes instant damage. Instead, it quietly undermines recruitment, retention, and growth. Over time, organisations find it harder to attract the right people, fill roles efficiently, and compete in increasingly crowded markets.
Why Marketing Is Often Misunderstood by Senior Leaders
Marketing is frequently seen as tactical rather than strategic. Activity is mistaken for impact, and campaigns are judged on outputs rather than outcomes. This narrow view reduces marketing to a series of tasks, rather than recognising its role in shaping perception, demand, and long-term growth.
Senior leaders may struggle to see marketing’s contribution because its influence is often indirect and cumulative. Unlike sales or operations, marketing does not always deliver immediate, linear returns. Its impact is felt over time through brand visibility, trust, and market positioning, which makes it harder to measure in isolation.
When marketing is not clearly linked to commercial and people objectives, it becomes vulnerable during periods of financial pressure. Without alignment to business goals such as recruitment performance, retention, and growth, marketing is more easily viewed as discretionary rather than essential to long-term success.
Common Reasons Businesses Undervalue Marketing
Several recurring factors contribute to marketing being underappreciated at the leadership level. These issues are rarely about intent; they are more often driven by pressure, perception, and a lack of strategic alignment between marketing activity and wider business objectives.
Marketing Is Viewed as a Cost, Not an Investment
Budget decisions are often driven by short-term financial pressure, particularly during periods of uncertainty. In these moments, marketing spend is frequently reduced before deeper operational inefficiencies are addressed, despite those inefficiencies often costing more over time through lost opportunities, slower growth, and increased recruitment spend.
When marketing is treated purely as a cost, its role in building long-term brand visibility, trust, and demand is overlooked. The return is not always immediate, but it compounds over time. Organisations that fail to recognise this often find themselves spending more reactively later, paying higher costs to regain visibility, rebuild trust, or attract talent they could have engaged earlier through consistent marketing investment.
Results Are Not Always Immediate
Marketing timelines rarely align neatly with board expectations for instant results. Unlike sales activity, the impact of marketing builds gradually through repeated exposure, consistent messaging, and long-term presence in the market.
Sustainable growth rarely happens overnight. When success is judged too quickly, marketing initiatives are often cut before they have the opportunity to gain traction. This stop-start approach prevents momentum from forming and reinforces the perception that marketing does not work, when in reality it has not been given the time or consistency required to deliver meaningful impact.
Poor Past Experiences with Marketing
Poor past experiences can significantly erode confidence in marketing. Underwhelming campaigns, unclear objectives, poorly briefed agencies, or a lack of strategic direction often result in activity that feels disconnected from business outcomes.
Without clear ownership, accountability, or alignment to wider organisational goals, marketing becomes fragmented. This reinforces the belief that it does not deliver value, when the underlying issue is not marketing itself, but the absence of strategy, clarity, and leadership oversight.
The Hidden Costs of Undervaluing Marketing
The impact of undervaluing marketing is often indirect but significant.
A weaker employer brand reduces visibility and credibility, making it harder to stand out in competitive talent markets. Recruitment becomes slower and more expensive, with lower candidate quality and increased reliance on reactive hiring.
Over time, reduced engagement and retention follow. When organisations are less visible and less trusted, both candidates and employees question long-term stability and opportunity.
The Link Between Marketing, Employer Brand, and Recruitment
Recruitment performance is influenced long before a vacancy goes live. Employer brand, reputation, and visibility shape candidate perception well in advance of any job advertisement.
Employer brand is a marketing asset. It communicates values, culture, and credibility, helping candidates decide whether an organisation is worth their time and trust.
When marketing is undervalued, candidate attraction suffers. High-quality candidates disengage early, often without ever applying.
How Undervaluing Marketing Impacts Long-Term Growth
Organisations that underinvest in marketing often experience slower scaling. Growth becomes reactive rather than planned, with recruitment struggling to keep pace with demand.
Hiring costs increase as reliance on agencies, short-term fixes, and urgent recruitment grows. During periods of change or downturn, reduced visibility also limits resilience.
In competitive talent markets, missed marketing opportunities translate directly into missed growth opportunities.
What Strategic Marketing Looks Like in High-Performing Organisations
High-performing organisations treat marketing as a strategic function aligned to business objectives.
There is clear ownership, accountability, and integration across leadership teams. Marketing is measured against outcomes that matter, not just activity.
Crucially, marketing is integrated with people strategy, EVP, and leadership vision, ensuring consistency between what the organisation says and how it operates.
Why Recruitment and Marketing Should Not Be Treated Separately
Talent attraction is a commercial issue, not just a recruitment task. Marketing insight supports workforce planning by shaping perception, demand, and engagement.
When recruitment and marketing work together, organisations attract stronger candidates, reduce hiring friction, and improve long-term outcomes.
Valuing marketing improves recruitment performance by strengthening visibility, trust, and alignment across the employee lifecycle.
How Macildowie Helps Businesses Align Marketing, People Strategy, and Growth
Macildowie supports organisations to align marketing, people strategy, and growth objectives by taking a joined-up, insight-led approach. Rather than viewing marketing and recruitment as separate functions, we help leadership teams understand how brand perception, employee experience, and workforce strategy directly influence commercial performance.
This includes employer brand and EVP development that genuinely reflects the reality of working within the organisation, not aspirational messaging that creates misalignment. By grounding employer brand in lived employee experience, organisations build credibility, trust, and stronger long-term attraction.
By connecting attraction, engagement, and retention, Macildowie helps leadership teams make informed, strategic investment decisions rather than reactive or short-term budget cuts. This clarity supports better prioritisation, more consistent decision-making, and improved alignment between growth plans and people capability.
The focus is on sustainable growth, improved recruitment outcomes, and long-term workforce stability. By aligning marketing with people strategy, organisations are better positioned to scale confidently, compete for talent, and maintain momentum through change.
Conclusion
Undervaluing marketing is rarely intentional, but it is costly. When marketing is treated as expendable, organisations gradually lose visibility, credibility, and momentum.
The most successful organisations understand that marketing is a growth enabler. It supports recruitment, strengthens employer brand, and builds trust long before a role needs to be filled.
Sustainable recruitment and retention depend on long-term visibility and confidence. Businesses that invest strategically in marketing are better positioned to attract talent, adapt to change, and grow with purpose.
