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I don't think the article is arguing against marketing. He's arguing against the 'launch' as the focus of marketing, and suggesting instead that building a brand should be the focus of marketing.

Building a brand is a long, ongoing process. You need to have a self-consistent set of values, and those values need to show through in your products. (I mean, there is more to having a brand, but without those consistent values, the other stuff doesn't matter.)

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You can have a launch strategy while building a brand, the two are not mutually exclusive.

I find it really ironic that this article comes from an "ad man" and a "principle of a strategic marketing firm" because he knows very little about marketing.

My point exactly, launch as a focus of Marketing or any other dept. for that matter is a bad thing and is an example of the Waterfall method.

Also, building a brand and marketing sound similar but are very different. In personal terms, you, as a brand would be 'what others to think of you', and marketing is 'what you say about yourself / present yourself'. Sales is how you 'turn an audience into followers'. Since sales = marketing + brand, in the analogy above 'audience to followers' = 'what you say about yoursef' + 'what people think of you').

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