Hi Reader,

Welcome to The Field.

I’m sending this because we’re in touch and I believe this perspective is relevant to the work you’re doing in eMobility.

I wanted to create a place to share how I look at marketing architecture and leadership in this field. From here on, I’ll share my perspective every two weeks, grounded in what I see while working with founders, CMOs, and commercial leaders in the field.

If this is useful, I’d genuinely like to hear what resonates or where you see things differently. And if it’s not, you can unsubscribe at any time.

Are you running today’s business with yesterday’s story?

I see this question surface most often when growth starts to slow, sales pressure increases, and marketing is expected to compensate.

Over the past few years, eMobility markets have matured faster than most companies’ marketing has. Products improved. Technology evolved. Competition intensified. But many marketing stories stayed largely the same. Not because teams were careless or incapable. But because marketing foundations are rarely revisited while the business is scaling, operations demand attention, and investors push for results.

What I see in the field is a growing gap between where eMobility companies are today and how their marketing is structured, positioned and led. That gap doesn’t show up immediately. But over time, it slows growth, weakens go-to-market execution, and increases pressure on sales to compensate.

This first edition is about that gap. Where it comes from. Why it widens. And what it means for anyone responsible for marketing leadership in eMobility.

What I'm seeing

Across the eMobility companies I work with, a similar pattern keeps appearing.

The market has moved on. Buyers are better informed. Expectations are higher. But marketing often still reflects an earlier stage of the company. In many cases, today’s story was shaped two or three years ago, when the focus was on product validation, early traction or initial market entry. At the time, that story worked. It helped explain something new. It helped bring in the first customers.

But markets don’t stand still.

What I see now are marketing teams working hard on output while the underlying narrative, positioning and go-to-market logic no longer match the reality of where the business is today. Campaigns run. Content is produced. Channels stay active. Yet momentum stalls. Not because marketing isn’t happening. But because it’s built on an outdated foundation.

At first, this is often masked. Sales teams compensate. Networks are leveraged. Existing customers carry part of the growth. Over time, however, friction increases. Pipelines slow down. Expansion into new markets becomes harder. Investor pressure rises. By the time this reaches leadership level, marketing is frequently perceived as “not delivering”, while the real issue sits deeper.

That pattern is becoming increasingly common in the eMobility field right now.

The foundation issue

When marketing starts to underperform in maturing eMobility companies, the reflex is usually to optimise execution. More content. Better campaigns. New channels. A different agency. Additional budget. More reporting. What rarely gets questioned is the foundation those activities are built on.

In many organisations, there is no longer a clear, shared answer to basic questions:

What problem are we solving today?
For whom, exactly?
And why should the market care now?

As companies scale, responsibilities fragment. Product evolves. Sales adapts. New markets are added. But marketing foundations are rarely revisited with the same discipline as financial planning or product roadmaps. The result is a growing disconnect between what the company has become and how it presents itself to the outside world.

Without clear ownership at C-level, marketing gradually turns into an execution layer rather than a strategic function. Decisions get postponed. Trade-offs are avoided. Outdated assumptions remain unchallenged because no one is explicitly responsible for revisiting them. Over time, this erodes trust in marketing as a growth driver. Not because marketing lacks value, but because its foundation was never recalibrated as the business evolved.

How I'd run this

If I were responsible for marketing leadership in an eMobility company at this stage, I would not start by changing channels or increasing output.

I would start by slowing things down. Not to delay progress, but to create clarity.

That means deliberately stepping back from execution to reassess the fundamentals. Revisiting the company’s current position in the market. Clarifying what has changed over the past few years, both internally and externally. And being explicit about what that means for the story the company tells today.

This is not a one-off exercise. It requires ownership. At this stage, marketing doesn’t fail because teams execute poorly. It fails because leadership no longer treats marketing as a strategic system.

Marketing needs a clear mandate at leadership level. Someone responsible not just for delivery, but for direction. Someone who continuously aligns positioning, messaging and go-to-market choices with where the business is going, not where it came from.

Only once that foundation is clear does execution start to make sense again. Campaigns become coherent. Content reinforces a shared narrative. Sales and marketing pull in the same direction. Expansion into new markets becomes a strategic choice rather than a leap of faith. In my experience, this shift rarely requires more activity. It requires better leadership.

Your perspective

If you’re open to it, I’d genuinely value your perspective. Where do you feel the biggest gap today between where your company is and how it presents itself to the market? You can simply reply to this email. I read every response.

See you in two weeks for a new perspective.

P.S.

Several leaders ask me how to assess whether their current marketing setup still fits where the business is today. That question is what led to our marketing performance workshop, where we review foundations, structure, and ownership in a focused working session.

Theo Reichgelt
Fractional CMO & Advisor
Founder, Nexxt Industry

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