MarTech reference architecture
Martech is never flat
I've spent over two decades in MarTech, drawing endless versions of what good looks like. There's never one right answer — high-level views, deep dives, different takes.
The MarTech Explorer is a personal labour of love that brings all of that into a single place you can explore, built on experience, market standards and industry trends.
B2C & B2B · 5 layers · 23–29 capabilities · fully mapped data flows
Why it exists
Every stack looks different, but the capabilities underneath are remarkably consistent. The Explorer maps them once — vendor-agnostic, so the thinking holds as platforms merge and rebrand. It's a shared view of what good looks like, and it's built not just to read, but to explore.
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Switch between B2C and B2B — one frame, directly comparable.
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Dial the maturity, from Core to Advanced.
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Click any capability to see its data, role and value.
What it covers
The architecture reads top to bottom in five layers, each one there to make the layer above it possible. Together they hold 23 capabilities in B2C and 29 in B2B, connected by a full set of data flows.
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Customer Experience — where engagement happens.
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Activation — plans and delivers the experience.
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Intelligence — decides who to engage, and when.
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Data — unifies and serves the data it all needs.
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Foundation — the services the whole stack runs on.
How to Explore
A reference, not a specific design. It shows best practice in general; mapping a particular estate against it is a separate exercise.
Vendor-agnostic. No products named — vendor choice is a distinct decision, made in context.
Maturity levels are considered defaults. The right level and sequence depend on scale, objectives and starting point.
Best used together. Designed to guide a conversation, exploring what's most relevant.
© 2026 Fresh Edit Ltd. Created by Kerry Dawes. All rights reserved.Proprietary and confidential. This framework, its capability definitions, maturity model and data-flow mappings may not be copied, distributed or reproduced without written permission.