Marketing helps bridge several key gaps:

• Between company and customer – Marketing builds relationships, creates awareness, identifies needs/wants and promotes offerings to customers. It connects companies to audiences.
• Between product development and sales – Marketing takes what is produced by a company and generates interest and sales through positioning, messaging and campaigns. It drives commercialization.
• Between consumer behavior and business strategy – Marketing analyzes customer habits, feedback and market forces to shape business plans and product/service development. It adapts offerings.
• Between sales and service – Marketing nurtures leads through the sales funnel and manages customer experiences/touchpoints before and after a sale. It bridges pre- and post-sales.
• Between brand identity and audience perceptions – Marketing shapes brand messaging and positioning to influence how audiences view and relate to a brand. It manages perceptions.
• Between companies and society – Marketing communicates corporate values, social impact initiatives and community engagement to strengthen public image. It builds reputation.
• Between data and insights – Marketing mines customer data and translates analytics into actionable insights that inform strategy and tactics. It enables data-driven decisions.
• Between creativity and analytics – Marketing blends art and science through balancing creative thinking and data-based decision making. It informs through analytics but compels through creativity.

In essence, marketing connects companies and customers, as well as the strategic, analytical and creative aspects of business. It forges vital linkages across the customer journey.