How One Organization Rebuilt Trust in Its Marketing Team Within a Year
mdg was engaged to evaluate, restructure and rebuild its marketing function from the inside out.
Case Study
- Marketing team restructured with new job descriptions, roles and long-term staffing plan
- Vice president of marketing strategy hired and successfully onboarded
- Confidence in marketing team restored across departments
Client
National Professional Association
Challenge
A national professional association knew it had a marketing issue. Performance was in decline, the department had become increasingly disconnected from the rest of the organization and business units were requesting their own dedicated marketing staff. With the centralized model clearly losing credibility, leadership needed an objective assessment of what had gone wrong and a practical roadmap to restore trust before the function fragmented permanently.
Approach
mdg conducted in-depth interviews with 25 stakeholders, including business unit leaders, board members and the full marketing team. These qualitative insights informed a strategic path forward that included a restructured team model, rewritten job descriptions with clearly defined core competencies, professional development recommendations for existing personel and a long-term staffing plan with proposed new roles and internal promotions. mdg then helped coordinate the hiring of a vice president of marketing strategy and developed a comprehensive onboarding plan for the role.
Results
The audit became the foundation for a stronger marketing department. A restructured team model, updated job descriptions and a long-term staffing plan guided the successful hiring of a vice president of marketing strategy, two additional team members and an internal promotion. Within 12 months, trust had been rebuilt and confidence in the centralized marketing function had returned across the organization.
Frequently asked questions
An effective marketing department assessment examines both how the team operates and how it’s perceived across the organization. Interviews with business leaders, marketing staff and key stakeholders often reveal structural, process and relationship issues that performance metrics alone can’t explain. For this organization, mdg conducted 25 stakeholder interviews to build a comprehensive roadmap for rebuilding its internal marketing department.
Organizations that restructure departments based on capability gaps (rather than individual performance) can often strengthen their teams without losing key staff members. This approach allows for targeted hiring, internal promotions and professional development that fills identified gaps.
An external perspective provides objectivity that’s difficult to achieve from within the organization. Employees are often more candid with a neutral third party, resulting in a more accurate assessment of organizational challenges. Independent recommendations can also build broader stakeholder confidence because they’re grounded in evidence rather than internal politics.
Internal trust in a marketing department grows when expectations and accountability are clearly defined. A well-structured team with defined roles and responsibilities is better positioned to deliver consistent results and rebuild credibility over time. mdg has helped several associations through the restructuring process, giving leadership the clarity necessary to restore confidence in internal marketing departments across their organizations.
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