
Is your marketing set up to fail? with Heather Hurd, Head of Marketing & Consultant
From Marketing Careers Uncovered by Dave Heywood
March 10, 2026 · 50 min · Season 3 · Episode 9
About this episode
Heather Hurd discusses the factors that determine marketing success and the common pitfalls organizations face.
You can have the best plan in the world, but if the environment is a mess, you’re just decorating a sinking ship. When things don’t go to plan, it’s not always because the work was bad. From unclear decisions to conflicting priorities, the stuff that sits above the work often determines whether your strategy ever actually lands or just ends up as a footnote in a slide deck. Heather Hurd has seen this from every angle - starting as a copywriter, moving into brand strategy, and now as a consultant helping organisations assess their "marketing readiness." She spends her time asking the deeper questions that most teams skip, diagnosing the structural roadblocks that keep marketing functions from ever reaching their full potential. Drawing on what she’s learned inside fast-moving startups and corporate giants, we discuss: The 6 factors of marketing readiness: A diagnostic toolkit for looking under the hood of any organisation. The template trap: Why "bespoke" strategy so often defaults to recycled busy-work when pressure hits. The sidelined marketer: What happens to the mission when marketing loses its seat at the top table. The silent kkill: How to use active…
People in this episode
Host: Dave Heywood
Guest: Heather Hurd
Topics covered
- marketing strategy
- marketing readiness
- organizational structure
- active listening
- leadership influence
- team trust
Keywords
- marketing failure
- diagnostic toolkit
- bespoke strategy
- sidelined marketer
- moonshot mission
- executive buy-in
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