What is your philosophy of marketing? Do you believe it is essential, valuable and requires the commitment of the best professional minds in the organization?

Or, is your philosophy of marketing that it is a necessary evil, that anyone can do it with some guidance?
The marketing concept is a philosophy. According to the MarketngTeacher.com, “it makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all business activities. It is driven by senior managers, passionate about delighting their customers.” http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-what-is-marketing.html

In this crazy economy, there is more pressure for marketing professionals to generate leads, help sell more products and services, and retain current customers/members.
Yet, the philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone in the organization. Often senior managers have not fully embraced their responsibility for driving the importance of marketing as the only edge in business today.
Here are some ways for the senior team to encourage the marketing advantage to help any organization be more successful:

Encourage everyone to think of new ways to engage customers/members
Challenge staff members to find ways to serve quicker, faster, better
Leverage analytics from your website to see how visitors utilize it and create new interactive ways to engage them
Profile and track customer/member behavior from database analysis to reach out to more “like” customer/member segments

What other things can you add to the list?