Marketing’s dopamine hit is crowding out real brand building

Marketing has become the loudest room in the building. Joseph George, chairman and CEO of Tilt Brand Solutions, argues that over the past decade brands built a powerful system for buzz—and let the slower work of making fall out of the spotlight.

The two systems are not equal

George separates the brand world into an enabling system and a rewarding system. Marketing can now assemble agencies, creators, platforms, content studios and AI tools quickly, and see reach, engagement, sentiment and sales signals within hours. Innovation runs on a different clock: scientists, engineers, prototypes, reworks, capital and patience.

That imbalance shows up in a simple observation:

“The marketing calendar certainly seems a lot busier than the innovation calendar.”

Why the loop tightens

Marketing produces outcomes that are visible both outside and inside the company—conversations, posts, reposts, followers, headlines, awards. CEOs hear about campaigns from customers, investors and friends. Campaign creators can publicly claim the win. Product development rarely earns that recognition until a breakthrough, which can take years.

Two enablers make the loop stronger: short marketing career cycles push people toward work that pays off today rather than years later, and marketing budgets now clear more easily because dashboards and social reinforcement make the spend feel safe. The question George raises for India follows from this: with its scale, talent and self-belief, should the country not be producing more proprietary technologies, world-class products and intellectual property? Companies get better at what they reward, so the imbalance compounds.

• Quick wins recruit attention. Buzz is measurable in hours, which makes it addictive.
• Recognition follows the measurable. Talent gravitates to work that gets celebrated.
• Fewer product bets lead to more buzz bets. The loop feeds itself.

What brand leaders can do

George is not asking brands to make marketing boring. The point is to give making an equally enabling and rewarding system: patient capital, tolerance for failure, institutional support and public recognition for work that takes years. As he puts it, “while buzz can certainly make a company famous, building is what will make it consequential.”

For brand managers, that suggests a practical shift: put long-term creation on the same visibility cycle as campaigns. Celebrate prototypes, name the teams behind slow work, and reward progress before it becomes a finished product. Otherwise the dopamine hit keeps winning, and the innovation calendar stays empty.

Source: ETBrandEquity.com