Marketing has become increasingly connected to business strategy as companies respond to changing consumer behavior, new technologies, and a crowded digital marketplace. For agencies, the challenge is no longer limited to creating campaigns; it is understanding the business behind the brand and developing solutions that support meaningful growth.
This approach is reflected in The Point Group (TPG), a marketing communications agency led by Susan Owen, CEO, whose career spans corporate banking, entrepreneurship, healthcare, and agency leadership. With three decades of experience connected to TPG, Susan has helped shape an agency built around strategic thinking, integrated capabilities, and a clear understanding of client needs.
Today, The Point Group brings business insight, creativity, research, talent, and technology together to help organizations navigate an evolving marketing environment.
Let’s explore the leadership, strategy, and principles driving The Point Group forward under Susan’s guidance!
A Career Built on Business Understanding
Susan’s professional journey began in corporate banking, where she developed a strong understanding of business drivers and strategies for growth. One of her notable achievements during this period was pioneering the first corporate partnerships for Southwest Airlines by launching its co-branded Visa.
That experience helped shape the way she approached business challenges. Rather than looking at marketing as an isolated function, she learned to understand the broader objectives behind an organization and identify opportunities that could contribute to growth.
Her entrepreneurial nature later led her to co-found Berkshire Biomedical, a medical device company. The experience gave her another perspective on business development and emerging opportunities while strengthening her understanding of the healthcare environment.
She eventually returned to the agency world, bringing these experiences with her. She had helped found TPG 30 years ago on the principle of being a business partner with clients, and that philosophy remains central to the agency today.
Her experience on both sides of the client-agency relationship has also influenced the people she surrounds herself with. TPG’s leadership team includes professionals who have worked on both sides of the business, allowing them to understand client expectations from firsthand experience.
Building a Business-First Agency
At TPG, the focus is not simply on providing individual marketing services. The agency brings together its capabilities to develop solutions around the business issues facing each client.
Susan believes this is one of the qualities that separates TPG from other firms: the ability to focus on the business issues and then develop solutions that blend creativity, advertising, digital, and public relations expertise into a strategy that works.
This philosophy has helped the agency develop a completely integrated approach. From branding and advertising to digital marketing and public relations, TPG’s client teams are structured to cover the different nuances required to build and strengthen a brand.
The agency’s objective is ultimately tied to client success. She emphasizes that TPG is there to help make its clients successful by having top talent and giving them the resources to exceed client expectations and deliver business results.
That approach has also contributed to TPG’s recognition as Agency of the Year, reflecting the organization’s commitment to combining strategic thinking with practical execution.
Values That Guide Growth
When Susan returned to TPG, the organization took the opportunity to review its values and ensure they reflected where the company was headed. Passion, purpose, professionalism, growth, collaboration, and innovation became important pillars of the organization.
These values influence how the agency approaches its work and how its people interact with clients and one another. Professionalism, collaboration, innovation, and continuous growth are treated as part of the everyday work rather than separate initiatives.
The agency has also re-ignited its team’s business-first focus and its desire to help clients achieve their business goals. For her, this means keeping the client’s objectives at the center of every strategy while ensuring that the agency continues to develop its own capabilities.
Her role reflects this philosophy. She sees herself as a visionary mentor in how to run a business while always ensuring that the organization is thinking business-first when working with clients.
Growing Through the Right People
For Susan, building a successful agency begins with building the right team. TPG takes the same strategic approach to building its agency as it does with its clients, recognizing that the quality of its people directly influences the quality of the solutions it can provide.
Finding outstanding talent, however, is not always easy. Like many organizations, TPG faces the challenge of maintaining an internal culture that is evolving alongside a diversified workforce.
The response has been to focus on people who bring more than technical expertise. TPG looks for professionals who collaborate well with their teams and clients, bring depth of experience and insight, have versatility in their skill sets, and have a desire to remain at the top of their game.
This diversity of experience is particularly valuable when working across industries. Professionals with backgrounds in advertising, public relations, healthcare, and other business areas can bring different perspectives into the same client team.
She has also invested in the agency’s own in-house studio, giving TPG the ability to create podcasts, radio spots, videos, commercials, and other multimedia content internally. The investment provides greater agility and allows the agency to respond more quickly to client and market demands while maintaining greater control over quality and costs.
Research at the Heart of Strategy
Understanding what is happening in the market is another important part of TPG’s approach. The agency places considerable emphasis on business and marketing trends, consumer behavior, and emerging opportunities.
Susan describes meticulous research on business and marketing trends as being at the heart of The Point Group’s marketing strategy. The agency takes a digital-first approach while looking closely at how consumers behave, how they receive information, and how their preferences continue to change.
TPG also uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including focus groups, to gain a deeper understanding of consumers and industries.
For her, learning does not stop with traditional marketing knowledge. She encourages people within the organization to read widely across different topics and industries, challenge conventional thinking, and continue learning from new developments.
The agency also relies on subject matter experts to share knowledge about current and emerging communication channels. Together, these efforts help TPG identify trends, understand audiences, and develop strategies that are relevant to the market.
Healthcare: Where Experience Matters
Healthcare has long been a key industry for TPG. Susan points to the agency’s depth of experience in healthcare as one of its strengths, supported by professionals who understand the language and complexities of the sector.
Healthcare evolves quickly, requiring agencies to stay informed about medicine, technology, patient care, and regulatory developments. TPG approaches this environment by closely monitoring the industry and working collaboratively with clients.
For her, creativity and ideas are important to marketing success, but only when they contribute to the success of the business. This distinction is particularly important in healthcare, where marketing must work within a highly regulated and sensitive environment.
TPG also brings experience from other industries, including hospitality and retail, into its healthcare work. These different perspectives can help the agency understand consumer behavior in new ways and develop strategies that connect with audiences.
The agency’s healthcare experience also supports its work in marketing to women, who Susan notes make 93 percent of all healthcare purchases. Understanding the role women play in healthcare purchasing decisions has become another area of expertise for TPG.
Combining Technology with Human Creativity
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of the marketing landscape, and TPG continues to explore its potential. Susan sees AI as a fascinating tool that is constantly evolving, particularly in areas such as data mining and analysis.
For TPG, one of the most valuable applications is understanding consumers more deeply. AI can help analyze consumer behavior, purchase pathways, preferences, and how audiences receive messages and branding.
At the same time, she does not see technology as a replacement for human creativity and intervention. Technology can provide efficiency and insights, but teams still need to interpret those insights and understand the client’s business.
The balance is therefore between technology and personalization. AI can help identify patterns and process information, while human teams determine what those insights mean and how they should shape communication.
This approach allows TPG to explore new technology without losing sight of the personal connection that remains important in marketing.
Preparing for the Next Stage of Health Marketing
Looking ahead, TPG sees significant opportunities in the changing healthcare environment. The organization is watching how disruptors are reshaping healthcare and looking for ways to help clients overcome new challenges while maintaining brand relevance and market share.
The agency is also expanding its focus into emerging areas such as wellness and longevity. Its experience across healthcare and other industries provides a foundation for entering these evolving spaces.
Susan believes the potential for continued growth across various sectors is at an all-time high. The growing intersection between medicine and technology is creating new opportunities for organizations that understand both sides of the equation.
For TPG, continued growth is closely connected to client growth. As she puts it, “If we’re not growing, that means we’re not being effective in our roles to help our clients’ businesses grow.”
That perspective keeps the agency focused on outcomes rather than simply activity.
Never Stop Learning
Susan’s advice to future marketers reflects the approach she has followed throughout her own career: remain curious, ask questions, embrace change, and never become complacent.
“Never stop learning and asking a lot of questions,” she advises.
Marketing continues to change as new technologies emerge and consumer behavior evolves. The way people consume information has changed dramatically, and new ways to reach consumers will continue to develop.
For professionals entering the industry, the ability to learn and adapt is therefore essential. Marketing is not a field where established methods can simply be followed indefinitely. It requires curiosity, collaboration, creativity, and the willingness to explore what comes next.
“You can never be complacent,” she emphasizes.
For The Point Group, that mindset remains central to the future. By keeping business objectives first, investing in talent, studying consumer behavior, embracing technology thoughtfully, and continuing to evolve, TPG is building on the principles that have guided it for three decades while preparing for what comes next.
At its core, Susan’s leadership reflects a belief that successful marketing is not simply about making a brand visible. It is about understanding the business, understanding the audience, bringing the right people together, and developing solutions that make a measurable difference.
