A Marketing Operating System: Processes, Roles, KPIs, and Governance Contours

The study is oriented toward the theoretical conceptualization and applied design of a marketing operating system (Marketing OS) for global retail. Against the backdrop of the exponential complication of MarTech stacks-which in 2024–2025 average roughly 62 tools per enterprise- traditional models of marketing management reveal pronounced operational inadequacy: data fragmentation intensifies, the transaction costs of coordination increase, and end-to-end process controllability declines. At the center of the discussion is a five-layer architecture of the Marketing OS that consolidates a data-governance contour, an AI-agent orchestration layer, an execution subsystem for communication channels, a performance measurement module, and a level of integration with the corporate IT landscape. Such an architecture is interpreted as a means of shifting from disparate technological "superstructures" to a cohesive operational logic of marketing, in which flow standardization, decision automation, and service coupling form a unified environment for reproducible execution. A separate emphasis is placed on the redistribution of effectiveness criteria: alongside conventional financial indicators, the use of the "return on time" metric (Return on Time, ROT) is substantiated. ROT is interpreted as an integral indicator of the productivity of automation and intelligent data processing, capturing the system's capacity to release managerial and production time through machine decision-making, shortened approval cycles, and improved operational accuracy. The empirical base of the work is formed through a comparative analysis of international strategies of leaders in DIY retail, complemented by a synthetic generalization of approaches aligned with the methodology of the quality-control expert practice "TANDEM." The theoretical framework relies on Dynamic Capabilities Theory, enabling the description of adaptive governance contours through interconnected processes of "sensing," "seizing," and resource transformation. Within this logic, the Marketing OS is treated as an infrastructural mechanism that ensures systematic detection of environmental signals, rapid mobilization of decisions, and sustained reconfiguration of resource arrangements under conditions of digital volatility. The results obtained indicate that the implementation of a Marketing OS is associated with a reduction in time-to-market by approximately 20% and an increase in the quality of marketing products by up to 30%. In addition, a structural transformation of professional roles is identified: the functional model of execution gives way to the role of an orchestrator of intelligent ecosystems, integrating data, algorithms, and channels into a single governed system. This shift forms prerequisites for sustainable competitive advantage by accelerating adaptation, improving process reproducibility, and strengthening the controllability of marketing activity in a dynamic digital environment.