In many companies, marketing feels busy but strangely ineffective.
Campaigns are launched, calendars are full, and yet progress feels uneven.
Very often, the root cause isn’t execution.
It’s confusion between strategy and planning.
They’re related, but they’re not the same thing - and treating them as interchangeable creates noise, not growth.
Strategy is about intent
Marketing strategy exists before timelines, channels or formats.
It’s the layer where a company decides how it wants to win.
A clear strategy answers questions like:
Who do we want to be relevant for?
What problem do we want to be known for solving?
What position do we want to occupy in the customer’s mind?
What kind of growth are we prioritising right now?
Strategy doesn’t describe actions.
It creates direction.
When strategy is clear, decisions feel lighter.
When it’s vague, everything feels urgent.
Planning is about organisation
Planning takes that intent and translates it into movement.
It deals with:
timing
sequencing
resources
responsibilities
budgets
execution rhythms
A marketing plan exists to answer a practical question:
“Given our strategy, what do we do next - and in what order?”
Planning is where ideas become work.
It’s necessary, but it’s not meant to define the vision.
Why teams confuse the two
Most teams start with planning because it feels tangible.
Calendars, tasks and campaigns are easier to discuss than positioning or focus.
So the plan ends up doing the job strategy should have done:
campaigns define direction
channels define priorities
short-term results redefine long-term intent
This is when marketing becomes reactive.
Not because people lack skill, but because direction was never clearly set.
What happens when strategy is weak
When strategy isn’t explicit, planning tries to compensate.
That usually looks like:
too many initiatives running in parallel
constant changes in messaging
difficulty saying no to new ideas
pressure to be everywhere at once
The plan grows, but impact doesn’t.
This isn’t a planning problem.
It’s a strategic one.
What good separation looks like
In healthy organisations:
strategy is discussed less often, but more deeply
planning happens frequently, but within clear boundaries
Strategy provides a stable reference point.
Planning adapts around it.
This separation creates:
consistency in how the brand shows up
flexibility in how teams execute
faster decisions
fewer internal debates
calmer, more focused marketing
Why this matters for growth
Growth requires repetition.
Repetition requires consistency.
Consistency requires clarity.
Strategy protects clarity.
Planning protects execution.
When both are respected for what they are, marketing stops feeling like a series of disconnected efforts and starts behaving like a system.
A practical way to check your own situation
Ask your team two simple questions:
“Can everyone explain our marketing strategy in one sentence?”
“Can everyone explain what we’re focusing on this quarter - and why?”
If the answers are unclear or inconsistent, the issue isn’t effort.
It’s the missing distinction between strategy and planning.
At InGrowth, we treat strategy as the anchor and planning as the engine.
We help companies clarify direction first - audience, positioning, focus, intent - and only then organise execution around it.
This reduces noise, improves alignment and makes marketing easier to scale.
Not because teams work harder, but because they work with clarity.
