Field Note No. 1

The Problem is Rarely Marketing

Every organization thinks it has a marketing problem at some point.

They say:
We need a new website
Our engagement is down
People don’t understand what we do
We need more visibility
We need PR

Sometimes they’re right.

Most of the time, they aren’t.

After working inside and alongside enough organizations — nonprofits, cultural institutions, associations, public-facing teams — a pattern becomes hard to ignore:

When people say “marketing isn’t working,” they’re usually describing an organizational clarity failure.

Marketing just happens to be where the symptoms show up first.

Where the Breakdown Actually Starts

The breakdown almost never begins in the marketing department.

It starts earlier — in leadership conversations.

Priorities shift but aren’t named.
Programs grow but aren’t integrated.
Different teams describe the organization in different ways.
Success is measured differently by each department.

Nothing feels obviously broken.

But slowly, the organization loses its ability to explain itself simply.

So it compensates.

More posts.
More campaigns.
More redesigns.
More messaging meetings.

The output increases while understanding decreases.

The Invisible Tax

When an organization lacks shared clarity, every department pays a tax.

Development writes grants explaining something slightly different than what the website says.

Frontline staff answer questions differently depending on who is working that day.

Leadership debates decisions that feel unrelated but are actually symptoms of the same unresolved question:

What role do we exist to play in people’s lives?

Without that answer, every decision must be re-argued from scratch.

That’s exhausting — and expensive.

Why Marketing Gets Blamed

Marketing sits at the intersection of all departments.

So it becomes the diagnostic surface.

If messaging is inconsistent, marketing looks inconsistent.
If priorities conflict, campaigns feel scattered.
If leadership is unclear, branding feels vague.

The team producing the communication becomes responsible for solving a problem they don’t control.

And they work incredibly hard trying to compensate for it.

The Campfire Rule

There’s a simple test I use when assessing an organization:

If a volunteer went home and someone asked
“So what does that place actually do?”

Would they answer consistently?

Not with a slogan — with meaning.

When that answer varies widely inside the organization, no external communication strategy will stabilize it.

Because communication problems are usually agreement problems.

Why This Matters Now

Organizations today don’t compete for information space.
They compete for cognitive clarity.

People decide quickly what to remember, support, return to, or ignore.

The organizations that grow sustainably aren’t the ones producing the most content.

They’re the ones that can be understood instantly.

Clarity reduces friction.
Friction determines participation.
Participation determines growth.

The Shift

The most effective organizations I’ve worked with eventually stop asking:

“How do we promote this?”

and start asking:

“What must be true for this to make sense?”

That single shift changes meetings, planning cycles, staffing conversations, and yes — marketing — without starting in marketing at all.

What I’ve Learned

Healthy organizations don’t scale communication first.
They scale shared understanding.

Once that exists, marketing becomes amplification instead of interpretation.

And everything gets lighter.

Next Field Note: Why Strategic Plans Fail Even When They’re Well Written.

— Brea Cunningham