Consulting vs. designing

I've made some headway in getting my head wrapped around the issue of what a graphic design firm or a media marketing is. It may shed light on the goals of mid-level firms.

The larger firms often come with the total package. They do the market research and solve the problem through media. This increases overhead, because the consulting time is higher. The questions that a client might pose are closer to "I need to promote this product or service" than "I need a brochure, website, or CD designed." This takes it out of the desktop publishing realm for print and the website designer world for interactive and into the problem solving consulting realm. The problem is that consulting has a connotation with talking without action and designing has a connotation with action without talking. Does the phrase "media marketing" take in the whole package?

This begs the question also, "What is the marketing department in the corporation getting paid to do?"

My experience seems to say that the in-house marketing department handles day-to-day problem solving and the out-sourcing to the media firm is done in special cases that the inhouse department cannot handle because they are focused on other projects or don't have the expertise.

Btw, I found a webpage that had outlines the AIGA's "12-step-program" previously mentioned (in selectable text).

--Stephen
www.smjdesign.com