"How Marketing Can Go Beyond the 'Make It Pretty' Syndrome," by Laura Patterson. 

Successful marketing is customer-focused--well, duh. Yet all too often marketing departments place too much emphasis on making the product look sexy, says Sylvia Reynolds, chief marketing officer for Wells Fargo, as cited in a recent article by Laura Patterson. Marketing is more than a creative function, says Patterson, that pivots on four critical customer-focused marketing processes: synching one's products with the needs and wants of customers to create customer value; making every customer "touch point" communicate value; monitoring the effectiveness of every company function in delivering value; and managing customer relationships. Read More>>