Most marketing functions were built for the business as it was, not the business it's about to become. That's not a criticism. It's simply how businesses grow.
Nobody designs a marketing function for a hypothetical future turnover. They build what the business needs today. Then today gradually becomes three years ago without anyone quite noticing.
The question isn't whether marketing is working right now. It's whether marketing can support where the business is going next.
The fifth pillar: Scale
In the Vantage Marketing Growth Framework, this is Scale.
It asks whether your marketing function has the capacity, capability and foundations to support the next phase of growth.
Not just the current one.
This is different from the other four pillars.
Strategy, Structure, Systems and Performance are largely about how well marketing is working today.
Scale asks whether today's marketing function could survive the business doubling in size.
A function can score well across the first four pillars and still fail this test.
Everything might be running smoothly at £15 million.
But would it still work at £30 million?
Or would growth expose weaknesses that require a fundamental rebuild?
Questions worth asking
- If headcount doubled next year, would your current marketing structure cope?
- Or would you need to rebuild it under pressure?
- If the business entered a new market or launched a new product line, could the existing team absorb it without everything else slipping?
- Is marketing knowledge concentrated in one or two people?
- If either of them left, would that create a serious risk?
- Does your current technology stack have room to grow?
- Is it already close to its limits?
A "no" to any of these questions doesn't mean marketing is failing today.
It means there's a gap between current capability and future needs and that gap is usually far more expensive to close under growth pressure than it is to address in advance.
Why this is the pillar businesses miss most often
The first four pillars tend to surface on their own.
Missed targets, frustrated boards and stretched teams make the problems visible.
Scale is different.
It rarely announces itself in the same way.
Everything can look fine right up until the business grows into the gap.
By then, marketing is usually already behind.
The business has moved faster than the marketing function can support.
That's when catching up becomes expensive.
A quick way to check where you stand
Across all five pillars, most businesses we speak to have a sense of where their gaps are.
What they often lack is a structured way to see the whole picture.
That's why we built the Marketing Growth Score.
It's 20 questions across:
- Strategy
- Structure
- Systems
- Performance
- Scale
It takes about 10 minutes and produces a score out of 100.
Most businesses scoring below 70 are leaving significant commercial opportunities on the table.
If you want a clear, honest view of whether your marketing function is built for where the business is going, not just where it's been, that's the place to start.
Vantage Marketing Group works with UK businesses ready to move from reactive to strategic.
If you'd like to talk about your marketing strategy, or you'd like us to talk to your marketing team about it, get in touch today:
info@vantagemarketinggroup.co.uk