Scott... This is wonderfully insightful. I really like the angle you took here. It's a great point that you make when you say: "Process in marketing is simultaneously important and impossible" One of the things that I'm observing as I work with my clients and in the workshops I teach - is that we all know that marketing (as a process) is fundamentally changing. It's just that no one knows exactly what it's changing into. We all have ideas (I've been working in the content marketing space and watching marketing turn more into a 'media operation') but no one knows for sure. The best we can hope for is that (as an enterprise marketing group) we have the ability to embrace chaos and change - and can remain agile. One of the things that I'm currently writing about (to coincide with this Gartner report) is that most are not asking the all important question of "why". Why is marketing buying all this technology? The answer is because most are trying to embrace and get their footing in this new chaotic world. From the outside looking in - I think you're absolutely right when you say: "I don't believe that backbone marketing systems will be complete one-stop shops for the entirety of the marketing department." And from the inside looking out - the marketing group needs to establish processes that utilize technology as it does creative, media tactics, channels and story. As it serves a productive purpose - feed it. When it stops - move along and embrace change. Thanks for a great post.

D - Spectacular example of storytelling - and creating the brand hero (or in this case heroine)... They've so clearly drawn a clear, well rounded character - and by so doing can create a fulfilling story. And I love how their buyer persona avoids all semblance of a "demographic" and instead focuses purely on what the buyer *desires*.... It's not about wealth, or age, or geographic origin... It's about the "frequent traveler who wants a modern, upscale luxury".... Age be damned! Thanks for sharing... this is just wonderful.