In a consumer-driven economy, competitive advantage goes to companies that can engage with customers in a meaningful way across all points of interaction. With the complexity of today's multi-channel market environment, this is not something that can be accomplished within the confines of the corporate marketing department - it must become a responsibility of the entire organization. We are all marketers. Such is the message being delivered by numerous business consultants, marketing gurus and thought-leaders, but how many are able to help companies accomplish this?

The need is clearly and concisely stated in an article released earlier this week by McKinsey associates Tom French, Laura LaBerge and Paul Magill.

Over the past decade, they say, marketers have been attempting to adjust to a new era of customer engagement across expanded channels and social media, struggling to better integrate various marketing functions and campaigns. But to truly engage customers for whom "push" advertising is increasingly irrelevant, companies must do more outside the confines of the traditional organization. In the era of engagement, marketing is the organization.

It seems I've read this same article over and over but we're not getting anywhere, like the movie Groundhog Day. My question is: how are consulting firms like McKinsey helping companies actually do these things? How can agencies help integrate marketing across all points of interaction, when they're only focused on a few? How do we connect with our customers when we don't know who they are or what's important to them? And how do we make that insight operational?

Maybe what companies need is a marketing methodology that starts with the customer, not the media or channel, and a marketing partner than can make it operational, and measurable.