Marketing is held in pretty low esteem these days. According to an Accenture study of 200 executives, it rates much lower than other functions within the organization in terms of its contribution to the business.

Asked to rate each of 11 key corporate functions in terms of their value contribution to the overall company (where 1=no contribution and 5=very significant contribution), executives gave marketing an average score of 3.7. However, they gave an average rating of 4.4 for sales and 4.1 for customer service, making these the top-ranked functions. What's more: Just 23 percent of executives said that marketing makes a very significant value contribution, compared with 61 percent for sales and 43 percent for customer service.

Ouch. Could it be that marketing must now turn its attention more aggressively to the objective of building customer value? If so, marketers must spend a great deal more time listening to the voice of today's (and tomorrow's) customer -- and relatively less on advertising and promotions. If it is operationalized, customer insight enables strategic action and builds value in a way most of today's marketing activities and programs do not.