As a functional area, marketing must operate as an agent of business strategy. In its role as liaison or conduit to the customer, marketing makes promises which the rest of the organization has to keep. Promise too little and we fail to make a sale; promise too much and the result is a loss of customer loyalty and soft prices. But if marketing is to be an agent of strategy then it must recognize that businesses following different strategies require different kinds of marketing efforts and different supporting marketing infrastructures and approaches. Similarly, just as businesses change their strategies at different stages of their life cycle and in response to market and competitive dynamics, so too must marketing make the appropriate accommodations to maintain its compatibility with the business
