The duality of marketing manifests itself in the necessity for a synergistic combination of different approaches: quantitative and qualitative, strategic and operative, analytic and creative, and others. Although the need for a broader qualitative approach in reference to social sciences is indicated (Czarniawska, 2021), this does not mean any reduced need for rigour and methodological diligence in the activities carried out in the sphere of science and practice. As a result, the idea of evidence-based management (EBM) was created at the turn of the 20th century. The key assumption underlying EBM is that a given organisation is constantly striving to increase the reliability of the evidence employed in all its decision-making processes, and thus the value of recommendations put forward based on such evidence. Marketing indicators are a significant element constituting the measurement of market activities and the quality of decisions on one side and, on the other, the anchorage of marketing activity in the concept of evidence-based marketing. This article aims to identify the extent of employment of marketing indicators on the Polish market as an element of evidence-based marketing. Consequently, the research results presented provide business practitioners with the possibility to benchmark their actions against those of other organisations on the Polish market based on evidence regarding the use of individual marketing indicators presented in the article. The starting point for the deliberations included in the article is determining the essence of EBM and referring it to the field of marketing, while the empirical basis is provided by the research conducted in November 2022 among the participants and graduates of programmes of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Evidence-Based Management — Essence, Characteristics, Process

The concept of EBM was born as a result of discontentment with low quality of the research conducted and cognitive biases leading to decisions that were frequently misguided. It stems from the so-called 'evidence-based practice (EBP)’, which was started in the medical sector, and the fear of making wrong decisions and formulating inappropriate medical recommendations (Mulrow, 1987; Antman, Lau, Kupelnick, Mosteller, & Chalmers, 1992; Cook, Mulrow, & Haynes, 1997). Instead, it was postulated to base them on reliable facts, evidence and research results (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart, 2003).

The positive effects of EBP led to it being implemented in other fields — first, in management (Denyer & Neely, 2004) and, later, in marketing (Rowley, 2012; Sharp, Wright, Kennedy, & Nguyen, 2017). In the field of social sciences, another contribution to the development of EBM was the poor quality of scientific publications — what was criticised first and foremost was the poor quality of research, a lack of sufficient clarity of recommendations and a significant degree of abstraction (Wind & Nueno, 1998; Pfeffer & Sutton, 1999; Aram & Salipante, 2000; Hodgkinson, Herriot, & Anderson, 2001), leading to the inadequacy of the theoretical sphere concerning the business practice (Tranfield, Denyer, Marcos, & Burr, 2004; Brennan, 2008).

EBM can, thus, be defined as a business decision-making process relying on adequate and reliable data and the best evidence available, all obtained from a diversified base of sources (Barends & Rousseau, 2018). This means that EBM attempts, on one hand, to combine theory and practice and, on the other, to increase the effectiveness of managers within the scope of decisions they make. Thus, EBM constitutes an inseparable part of the knowledge-based economy (Rowley, 2012).

EBM corresponds to the theory of praxeology (Kotarbiński, 1973), which represents a similar approach to objectives, perception of an organisation and research methods — the existence of numerous sources, diligence and critical evaluation, a multilateral approach and a method of conducting analysis and synthesis (Szpanderski, 2008). Its aftermath consists of trends such as business performance management (Eckerson, 2005) or business intelligence (Radziszewski, 2016), which combine quantitative and qualitative research, thus striving to evaluate market results and discover the dependencies between the organisation and its environment is consistent at the same time with triangulation principles. It has been proved that taking advantage of many sources supported by their critical evaluation-including taking advantage of the experience and knowledge of many people (Armstrong, 2001; Silver, 2012) and 'hard data’ (Lewis, 2004; Grove, 2005) — and then aggregating the results obtained is more effective than relying on single sources and leads to making more accurate decisions (McNees, 1990; Tetlock, 2006).

At the same time, EBM separates itself from the intuitive approach in favour of the so-called ’empirical generalisation’ (Kozielski, 2022). Empirical generalisation presents the causal relationships and dependencies between the methods, instruments and actions and the reaction of buyers and the degree of influence on their decisions through universal laws regarding varied aspects of the market activity of an organisation (Wind & Sharp, 2009) obtained in a rigorous research process conducted in different contexts and generating coherent conclusions and recommendations (Shaw & Merrick, 2005).

As has been indicated, EBM is mainly based on evidence — research results, information, facts or data that either support the assumptions or hypotheses or reject them. The knowledge and experience of managers and experts are included among these, as well as the indicators and metrics (Barends & Rousseau, 2018). Meanwhile, evidence can be characterised by three fundamental features:

1. validity — understood as the integrity of data and conclusions stemming from them;
2. reliability — understood as the degree of probability that another measurement conducted using the same method will yield similar results
(Bryman & Bell, 2012); and
3. bias — understood as the possibility of influence of factors distorting the research process (Longbottom & Lawson, 2017).

EBM as a method of improving the organisation’s functioning and the related accuracy and quality of business decisions made is consistent with marketing-or, more broadly, management-entering the era of measurement and data (Provost & Fawcett, 2013; Chavez, O’Hara, & Vaidya, 2018), and consequently, the era of a market decision made based on adequate and relevant data. The knowledge of changes taking place in the organisation’s environment and-further on-conscious use of information has a positive impact on the correlation between the objectives and activities of an organisation, similar to the transparency within the scope of data and evidence employed or the responsibility of a manager for the decision made based on such data and evidence (LaPointe, 2005). This enables discovering market laws and making more effective decisions, which leads to more efficient competition and the formation of resilient organisations (Kozielski, 2022). The characteristics of EBM and evidence-based marketing can be contained within three key conclusions constituting the essence of these concepts:

1. EBM is based on sound and meticulously conducted research and a comprehensive and systematic approach to data and information gathering, which aims to produce the best and most up-to-date market knowledge, resulting in effective managerial decision-making, a better understanding of the market and buyers and building competitive advantage and a customer-centric and resilient organisation;
2. EBM has a practical and application character and forms a bridge connecting the sphere of science with management practice; and
3. EBM is characterised by procedures aimed at obtaining diligent knowledge and combining science with practice (Kozielski, 2022).

EBM, and especially marketing measurement, refers in its assumptions to an organisation’s efficiency and productivity. The beginnings of this trend in management science can already be found in the source literature from over 100 years ago (Taylor, 1911). However, the dynamic growth of research and publications in the field of measurement of marketing activities and results dates back to the first years of the 21st century (Shaw & Merrick, 2005; McDonald, Smith, & Ward, 2007). The possibilities of taking advantage of marketing indicators have been addressed, to the most comprehensive extent, in the studies of Davis (2007) and Farris et al. (2010)This was related to the development of digital marketing and extensive access to data — especially real-time data (Sterne, 2002; Heman & Burbary, 2013).

The development of measurement based on marketing indicators, especially those acquired in a dynamic way, was mainly due to dissatisfaction with the use of traditional metrics, which were largely historical, retrospective, focussed on financial aspects, had little reflection and translation into the organisation’s market strategy, etc. At the same time, the importance of intangible assets in an organisation was growing and the ideas of value-based marketing and learning or agile organisations were developing. All of this has led to an intensification of the use of marketing indicators in organisations over the past decade or so and to an expansion of their use, particularly in relation to the digital sphere — internet marketing, e-commerce, social media, etc. (Kozielski, 2015). The question naturally arises as to the current extent of the use of marketing indicators functioning on the Polish market.

Research Methodology

EBM is determined by the indicated key features and conditions of its course. This applies to market activities in particular. An immanent element in the sphere of marketing is the measurement of effects and marketing actions and the marketing indicators obtained as a result of it. In view of the above, the survey aimed to assess the extent to which marketing managers use marketing indicators and to identify the specifics of these metrics on the Polish market.

The empirical basis was provided by the 'CIMO Standards & Foresight’ research project carried out on the Polish market. The survey was conducted in November 2022 using the CAWI method on a group of Polish graduates of the CIM having certified professional qualifications. The survey participants were comprised of 89 respondents, who were chosen based on purposeful sampling. The selection criteria were: experience in marketing and position occupied (CEO, director, middle manager). The idea behind the selection was for each person surveyed to represent a different organisation. Therefore, from this point of view, the size of the company, the dominant source of revenue and the type of business relationships were chosen as the selection criteria. The research sample is shown in Table 1. The survey instrument was an interview questionnaire which, in the part corresponding to the results presented in the article, consisted of a number of questions on the indicators used (semi-closed questions) and the frequency of using them.

Use of Marketing Indicators in Poland

Adopting an EBM formula requires, among other things, the use of diverse sources of information, indicators that give a complete picture of the market situation and metrics that allow effective decisions to be made at strategic and operational levels. According to the research, three areas of measurement come to the fore among the indicators employed on the Polish market (Table 2). The first is related to the financial sphere (revenue, margin/profit), the second to market position and market activity (market share, customer retention, customer satisfaction) and the third to digital activity (visits, reach, engagement and conversion indicators in relation to websites, social media and online advertising). It could be argued that such a mix is quite balanced and touches upon both the strategic and operational spheres. At the same time, however, it should be pointed out that the marketing indicators used by marketers are wellknown and fairly standard in nature, and some of them are traditional metrics of market activity.

On the other hand, among the indicators that marketers on the Polish market least use are those relating to influencer marketing, sentiment analysis, the share of wallet, CLV and GRP indicators and distribution metrics. These indicators are also applied to various areas of the organisation’s activity (offline vs. online, financial vs. non-financial). Obviously, the analysis of the indicator application scope alone is insufficient to draw far-reaching conclusions. Hence, looking at these indicators from a strategic, operational and frequency-of-use perspective is useful.

The analysis of marketers’ declarations as to the strategic and operational indicators used (Table 3) confirms the previously formulated conclusion regarding the noticeable balance between these two categories of metrics. It seems that such an approach should be viewed positively and may also stem from the fact that both middle and senior management participated in the research. In the case of strategic indicators, sales and profitability measurement again comes to the fore, followed by marketing effectiveness (ROMI), company/brand positioning (market share, brand value) or indicators related to customer retention (retention, satisfaction, CLV). In the area of operational indicators, on the other hand, marketers tend to measure the area of digital marketing and, again, sales. They take the different stages of the purchase process defined in models into account, such as the customer journey (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016) or the RACE model (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019) — from reaching the customer (e.g. social media reach, website hits, online advertising and brand awareness) and establishing interaction (e.g. time on site and content management) through conversion (e.g. sales effectiveness, conversion and customer acquisition cost), to maintaining engagement (e.g. social media engagement and content management).

The survey also took into account the identification of the frequency of the measurements carried out (Table 4). It showed that Polish marketers are most likely to measure on a monthly basis. This is where the highest total indications were recorded. The second quite typical frequency of marketing activity monitoring in Poland is annual monitoring. When looking at all the separate measurement periods, it is possible to find that there is not much differentiation in terms of defined categories (offline vs. online, financial vs. non-financial). As indicated earlier, a balanced mix of metrics-strategic and operational, traditional and more modern, etc.-dominates across all adopted measurement frequencies. The only clear trend is that the less frequent measurements and assessments (semi-annual and annual measurements) are dominated by those more strongly related to marketing, marketing-built assets and market activities — NPS, brand awareness and value, customer satisfaction, market share, customer retention, etc. It is also worth noting that strategic indicators are undeniably monitored much more frequently on an annual basis than operational ones.

Summary

EBM relies on the assumption of using adequate, diligent data from the best available sources, collected in a way that ensures its credibility (diligence and accuracy). In the marketing sphere, this applies-in particular-to the measurement of market activities and effects and marketing indicators. The data collected allow us to conclude that the surveyed organisations collect data that enables analysing different aspects and levels of the organisation’s market activity. Thus, it can be assumed that the Polish marketers surveyed perceive their activities in a rather holistic and comprehensive manner, taking into account the broader perspective of the organisation and its environment — which corresponds with the assumptions of EBM. At the same time, it is worth underlining that the range of data used is sufficient. On the one hand, owing to reasons such as difficulties arising from scarcity in data availability, economically unviable data acquisition costs, limitation in knowledge, etc., it may not be realistic to assume that 100% of companies will monitor even the most crucial indicators. On the other hand, it is possible to notice some room for broader use of certain metrics (e.g. sentiment analysis, CLV, GRP, purchase intention, customer retention costs and online sales costs). The research results presented do not make it fully possible to generalise them to the entirety of organisations operating on the Polish market. Nonetheless, they provide a rationale for reflection on the use of metrics, particularly in the context of their categorisation and frequency of use and their reference to an EBM approach.

To conclude, the observations mentioned above have likely brought out the need for the identification of future research directions that would facilitate exploration of additional metrics for deployment in identifying the efficacy of an organisation’s EBM processes.. One of them is deepening the analysis regarding the link between marketing objectives and the metrics used. Others include identifying the relationship between the metrics used and the performance of the organisation and the ability to make more effective decisions and building a relatively sustainable market advantage on this basis. It would also be of value in itself to assess the differentiation of results in relation to the specific characteristics of the company (size, operating model, etc.) or the market (B2B, B2C), etc.

Funding

The research presented in this article was conducted under the directions of the author and funded by the Accredited Study and Exam Center of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (questus).

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The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the current economic instability (inflation, credit lending, energy prices, etc.) in Poland as well as the turbulence in European and global markets have all made the volatility and complexity of the business environment in which modern organisations have to operate extremely apparent. These changes have also brought an unprecedented increase in popularity and research interest in the concept of organisational resilience — understood as the ability to survive in difficult, adverse business circumstances. Organisational resilience is fundamentally related to the market conditions of an organisation’s functioning.

The business environment, defined as VUCA, BANI and sometimes as RUPT, has been considered unpredictable and adverse since the 1960s (Emery & Triest, 1965). This is mainly due to its key characteristic — turbulence (volatility and complexity), as defined by Ansoff (1979). In this situation, one in two companies cannot operate on the market for more than 10 years, one in eight for no more than 30 years and only one in 20 can survive for more than half a century (Fesser, 2011). This means that the average lifespan of an organisation has reduced to around 12 years (Echeverria, 2012). Nevertheless, this does not mean that change causes an organisation to fail. The reasons why companies fail are determined by their inability to cope with change and the resulting loss of competitiveness (Adamson & Steckel, 2018). Some point out that this results from so-called 'strategic myopia’ (Czakon, 2020).

In this context, the challenge is to build the market resilience of an organisation, understood as the ability to survive and grow in a difficult, adverse business environment. Marketing plays an important role in this process. This role is sometimes referred to as the 'marketing interface’ (CIM, 2000) and can be considered from the perspective of organisational culture, market strategy and operational activities. The new marketing function addresses the challenge of building an organisation’s market resilience at all these levels. As a result, the purpose of this article which is based on a survey conducted in 2022 among graduates and participants in programmes of the Chartered Institute of Marketing is to identify the role of marketing in the face of the challenges of the contemporary business environment in the context of the requirement for organisations to have market resilience.

The Concept of Market Resilience of Organisations

Effective collision of an organisation with the contemporary business environment depends on the ability to apply various methods of strategic agility, flexibility and adaptability (Holbeche, 2015). Although organisational resilience is directly related to the previously established and developed concepts of the learning organisation (Senge, 1990; Garvin, 1993), flexible and adaptive organisation (Reeves & Deimler, 2011), ambidextrous organisation (Zakrzewska-Bielawska, 2017) and long-lived organisation (De Geus, 2002), the idea of resilience has its origins in the realm of psychotherapy and, as such, has sought answers to questions related to the circumstances of individuals functioning in crisis — questions that would be helpful in ascertaining the degree to which the crisis situation determines the development of our psychophysical capacities, as well as methods that can be deployed to address the limitations observed in such development, vis-a-vis the estimated potential (Rak & Patterson, 1996).

In the management sphere, the idea of resilience emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and describes the organisational, dynamic ability to defend or strengthen the market position in the long term despite an unfavourable, unstable market environment and emerging changes in the business environment. It was developed based on analysis of the sources and causes of organisational failures or setbacks and the occurrence of adverse events leading to them (Sheaffer, Richardson, & Rosenblatt, 1998). This view of organisational resilience highlights its multidimensionality and a high degree of interdisciplinarity. It touches upon the ways in which institutions, teams or individuals behave in situations of crisis or uncertainty (Lee, Vargo, & Seville, 2013).

Market resilience, or organisational resilience, is the ability to recover from a periodic slump or failure, but it additionally encompasses the ability to take adaptive action when signals of change emerge (Hamel & Valikangas, 2003). Organisational resilience is the ability to take swift, creative, situationally appropriate, decisive and transformative actions that minimise the impact of adverse events in the market environment on the organisation (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Resilient organisations are able to address significant events that may affect (positively and negatively) the business by having systems in place that enable 'early warning’ about and anticipation of emerging (internally and externally) opportunities and threats, as well as responding effectively to these events using their resources flexibly and efficiently, at the right time and in the right way. Resilience is, in fact, the ability of an organisation to become independent from the disruptive influence of the business environment in the long term by reading and understanding market changes, thus even anticipating them and continuously reconfiguring resources to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage (Kozielski, 2022).

When adopting this approach and understanding of resilient organisations, several key characteristics of resilient organisations can be identified. These include awareness of market situation and vulnerability management, agile and adaptive capabilities, leadership and organisational culture (McManus, 2008; Vargo & Stephenson, 2010), agile planning, operations, practices (Holbeche, 2015), readiness to change, the agility of operating, management through results and continuous improvement, nurturing collaboration, networking and community (Seville, 2016; Burkett, 2017), and others. When analysing an organisation’s resilience in the market dimension, marketing understood as the organisation’s link to the market becomes a key element.

Market Interface — The New role of Marketing

The ability of an organisation to survive and grow is not dependent on any single department, function or area within the organisation. It results from the interdependent and synergistic cooperation of all spheres of the organisation. Nevertheless, the roles of different areas of the organisation vary. One of the key ones is marketing. The marketing role is comprised of the tasks carried out by the marketing staff, and these pertain to the functions of market analysis, identifying market trends, assessing competitors’ activities or defining the main business opportunities and threats. Therefore, the marketing function constitutes a kind of bridge, link or interface between the organisation and its environment (Kozielski, 2022), to which an overarching role is attributed because of the vastness and deep significance of its contribution towards achieving organisational growth and development (Deloitte, 2007). Obviously, the realisation of this function is conditional on defining the correct place and role of marketing in the organisation. This role should be determined by three dimensions — organisational culture, strategy and operational-tactical activity (Webster, 1992, 2005). Taking this three-dimensional perspective, the role of marketing was defined at the level of organisational culture as 'customer advocate’, strategy as 'business owner’ and at the operational-tactical level as
'professional manager’ (Figure 1).

The role of the customer advocate occupies an essential position in the sphere of organisational culture, operating philosophy or so-called 'organisational awareness’, which should focus on understanding market processes, market sensitivity and, in particular, the customer and creating 'win-win’ relationships with them. Customer-centricity is a fairly well-known (Fader, 2020) and accepted concept. At the same time, however, building an organisation that understands the market and the customers and fully implements this approach into its business processes is no longer so common. At the strategy level, marketing is defined as a 'business owner’, creating solutions (based on a business concept and the corresponding applied model whose commercial viability has been demonstrated) that provide the organisation with a competitive advantage now and in the future. Finally, at the operational-tactical level, marketing should be responsible for professionally executing the market activities related to building and delivering value for customers or, more broadly, stakeholders.

Research Methodology

Organisational market resilience is determined by implementing the marketing function as a market interface. This manifests itself in its role at the level of organisational culture, market strategy and operational-tactical activities. The specifics of the market situation and conditions of competing influence the need to address them through the indicated areas of marketing activity. Among other objectives, the present research aimed to identify the challenges faced by organisations on the Polish market and the main sources of their future growth, and then to relate these to the requirements placed on marketing in this context.

The survey was carried out in the form of a CAWI among middleand senior-level marketing managers of organisations that are active on the Polish market. The invitation to participate was extended to 300 graduates and participants in the programmes of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, of whom 89 responded positively. The structure of the sample is presented in Tables 1 and 2.

The survey instrument was an interview questionnaire consisting of a total of 23 questions and seven demographic questions. Scalebased closed questions and semi-open questions were dominant in the questionnaire. The survey was carried out in November 2022. Pilot surveys preceded the actual surveys, and the interview process itself did not cause any major problems for the respondents.

Challenges of the Contemporary Business Environment

The market resilience of an organisation is the ability to survive and grow in a difficult, adverse business environment. Effective marketing as a market interface is of key importance for building market resilience. As a result, the starting point of the research was to identify the key challenges faced by organisations operating on the Polish market and then to identify the dominant sources of future organisational growth in the context of the new role of marketing indicated in Figure 1.

The first sphere was addressed through a question in which respondents were asked to answer the following: 'Please rate, on a scale from 1 (not at all concerned) to 5 (most concerned), the following factors, indicating which factors you believe will most strongly and negatively affect (limit the growth of) your company/brand’s operations.’ As shown in Table 3, the key challenges that hinder or may hinder an organisation’s operation on the Polish market and, thus, affect its ability to survive and grow are related to economic, legal and socio-political conditions, as well as to customer behaviour, competitor activity, the actions of business intermediaries and internal factors.

The respondents perceive the main threats in the sphere of the emerging economic recession, including, in particular, the rising costs of operation. In addition, companies’ operations are negatively affected by the war in Ukraine, declining buyer incomes, falling demand, changes in customer behaviour and the actions of competitors. All of these factors must raise concerns about the future. As a result, according to research, today one in five companies operating in Poland already fears bankruptcy and insolvency (BIG InfoMonitor, 2022). At the same time, there were twice as many cases of insolvency in the whole of 2022 when compared to 2021. Experts’ estimates indicated that over 250,000 companies would go bankrupt in Poland throughout 2022 (Kamiński, 2022). In this context, questions must arise about potential sources of growth and areas for creating market resilience.

Sources of Growth and Market Resilience of Organisations and the Role of Marketing

Organisational resilience requires addressing the identified disadvantages of the business environment by taking proactive measures — actions directed at not only defending the current market position but also achieving and sustaining growth. The empirical material collected made it possible to identify quite a long list of activities that companies operating in Poland are undertaking or plan to undertake. The respondents were asked to select growth areas from the proposed cafeteria, along with the option to indicate others. Among the responses, opportunities to expand the scale of operations by entering new markets, a strong brand, relationships with business and trade partners, the innovativeness of the company and the benefits stemming from the application of new technologies come to the fore (Table 4).

At the other extreme are those activities identified the least frequently by respondents as effective methods of addressing the business challenges identified. This category includes competing with price, exploiting competitors’ weaknesses, verifying the cost structure and reducing cost levels. In contrast to the activities that the highest percentage of organisations plan to undertake, those with the lowest acceptance rates are more operational and short-term in nature, with immediate rather than sustainable results.

In the final stage, the actions planned to be taken were mapped to the previously indicated levels of tasks given to marketing in the context of building market-resilient organisations. It can be stated with some caution that the respondents demonstrated a high degree of maturity and business awareness. This is because their plans are dominated by strategic considerations (including expanding the scale of operations by entering new markets, establishing a strong brand presence and adopting a sound system of managing relationships with business and commercial partners), or emerge from a level of organisational culture that focusses on innovation (Table 4) rather than on rote adherence to previously formulated schemes and designs.

Summary

Stating the volatility and complexity of the contemporary business environment qualifies as a truism (Ploszajski, 2005). Nevertheless, it is important to emphasise that the business environment dynamics and complexity are increasing every year and decade. The concept of an organisation’s market resilience-understood as the ability to survive and grow in an adverse business environment-is a response to the conditions in which contemporary businesses operate. The actions taken or planned to be taken as a response to the identified business challenges, as indicated in Table 4, refer to all the roles attributed to marketing as a market interface (described in Figure 1). They touch upon the sphere of organisational culture as well as market strategy and operational activities. However, the ones that come to the fore are those that have a more long-term nature, providing opportunities for growth and offering chances for generating a more sustainable competitive advantage, thereby strengthening the resilience of the organisation.

The degree up to which an organisation is successful in building its market resilience is determined by the extent of effective use of marketing at all the levels describedThis should be done in a synergistic and balanced manner.

Overemphasising one level at the expense of another results in upsetting this balance and limiting the ability to survive and grow. The findings of the surveys confirm that, in practice, marketing managers understand this relationship and plan to undertake activities taking advantage of the role of 'customer advocate’, 'business owner’ and 'professional manager’. A high degree of awareness of customer-centricity that is not translated into strategy or operational activities will produce the same unsatisfactory results as a certain strategic or operational efficiency that does not include taking into account the customer’s interest and point of view.

The market resilience of an organisation should rest on multiple pillars — the willingness to change, the ability to change and the ability to reconfigure resources (Kozielski, 2022). All of these areas, and their integration, require an approach to marketing (and its role) that differs slightly from the traditional one. In examining the suitability of the traditional understanding of the role of marketing in catering to the needs of enterprises seeking to establish the required level of market resilience in themselves, we encounter several difficulties requiring to be redressed; among these are the lack of a clearly defined objective, low effectiveness, customer appropriation, focus on operational issues, poor internal communication and financial illiteracy. This indicates the need to seek a new approach to marketing. It may not even be a new approach, but rather one that is holistic and based on the internal and external integrity of philosophy, strategy and instruments. On the one hand, of course, marketing and its role in the organisation should not be excessively glorified. On the other hand, it cannot be depreciated or underestimated. However, just as it is accepted that the rules of management are changing and the sustainability of competitive advantage is no longer an unquestioned myth (McGrath, 2013), marketing should keep up with the demands placed on it. The roles of marketing identified in this article are a voice in the discussion on the evolution of marketing and the function it should play in building organisations capable of survival and growth.

Funding

The research presented in this article was conducted under the directions of the author and funded by the Accredited Study and Exam Center of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (questus).

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