Beyond Marketing and Communication

An outsider's view of the nautical sector: why communication can't resolve what positioning hasn't yet decided.

Victoria Paola Rodríguez, Marketing Lead

In the nautical sector, a polished social presence and thousands of followers don't validate the technical work behind them. I came to understand that by looking at the industry from the outside.

I arrived from an industry where aesthetics, social media and narrative are part of the business's DNA from day one: every action, every contract and every sale rests on content that sustains, not just accompanies. So when I started hearing "we've already got marketing covered" or "marketing isn't our priority," something didn't quite add up for me.

I'm Victoria Rodríguez, I'm 22 and I come from the arts and entertainment world. Since entering the nautical sector, I've been struck by how many small companies are doing remarkable things, real innovation, technical judgment, ideas the sector hasn't yet finished reading.

The real challenge isn't the absence of marketing: it's that, on top of everything they already manage, they have to take on communication as well. And few can justify an in-house hire, or find someone who understands both their essence and their stakeholders.

Before the how, the why

I decided to pause before proposing. I studied profiles, ages, decision-making logics. And I came to see that the challenge is structural, because what a company does weighs more than what it tells. That's why many companies jump straight to the how, the website, the social channels, the campaigns, before resolving the why: what do they stand for? Why does that matter to their client? They communicate activity, but not position. And without position, everything they publish ends up sounding alike.

The question I hold on to

My goal was never to position myself as an expert; at 22, that would mean forcing a stance that isn't mine to take. The question I do keep in mind is a different one: what can a perspective still unconditioned by the sector's inertia bring to it? If that one-line statement, the one that explains what a company does better than any direct alternative, hasn't been built, no agency, community manager or campaign can sustain a sale.

I don't claim the experience of a veteran. My essence is precisely the opposite: coming in from the outside lets me hold on to the question that comes before the proposal.

Does a company hire communication because it knows what it stands for and wants to amplify it? Or does it do so hoping that activity will, somehow, produce clarity?

The first conversation opens paths. The second is still waiting to find one. If this reading connects with any conversation already open within your organization, hearing from you would be a pleasure.

— Victoria Paola Rodríguez, Marketing Lead, North Consulting