Thursday, July 19, 2007

Marketing Art or Science?


Marketing Art or Science

Is marketing an art or a science? The answer is yes. Marketing is both – an art and a science.

Marketing Science
Marketing is a science because marketing is about understanding and influencing behaviors. Psychology, the science of behaviors, studies how people react to certain stimuli in predictable ways. This is similar to Newton’s’ third law – cause and effect.

Marketing Art
Marketing is an art because marketing is about appreciating the nuances of human behaviors. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is art.


Marketing Science
Marketing is a science because marketing is about measuring and analyzing the numbers. How many do you reach? How many read your message? How many do you convert to buyers? How much do they spend? How many buy again? These are numeric questions and answers and important to the success of your marketing.

Marketing Art
Marketing is art because marketing is creating a demand for your product. Some of that demand is immediate and some of it is in the future. You can try to use science to predict the future part but you might pick a number based on art. There is always an unknown aspect that we attribute to art.


Marketing Science
Marketing is a science because the most common question is “How much money should I spend on marketing?” The business owner and the accountants want the answer to this question. It’s a good question but the more important question is, “What return can you expect from your marketing investment?”

Marketing Art
Marketing is an art because there is the issue of branding which is difficult to measure. To generate a good return on your marketing investment requires a creative approach. That means apply the art of marketing.


Of course the argument of science versus art over marketing could go on. Is it art? Is it science?

I believe that many marketers try to portray marketing as art. And hence they give up responsibility for their marketing programs. They suggest that marketing is all chance. Instead it is a science that should draw upon the art. Don’t let art dictate the direction of your marketing. Use science to determine major decisions and use the art for the nuances.

Is marketing a science or art? I believe that it is both art and science. Most importantly the science should lead and measure and the art should inspire and create.

That is the art and science of marketing.


George Torok
Marketing Specialist


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2 comments:

pallavi said...

I strongly believe that Marketing is pure art.
Marketing is simply an act of attraction.

In art there is an incessant quest to innovate and captivate your AUDIENCE's attention. The attention caught can be or can not be utilised for the profit of an artiste depending upon his capabilities to sell his product.

Marketing is not a science because in science, when same sets of procedures are followed, no matter how many times, gives the same desired result.It will not change.

But in Marketing, like art, the possibility of getting the same kind of responses from your audience will vary, every now and then Because what marketing tactics you had used on your audiences to grab their attention ten years back will not capture their attention if you use in say 2020.

An art is an Innovation.It is permanently dynamic.It produces different responses from different set of people at different period of time.And so is Marketing.

Patti Pokorchak said...

Good posting George, intriguing arguments.

I always say marketing is an inexact science but it can be and should be tested. True, it's never 100% perfect as you can't predict people as there are just too many variables but it's better to test than just go with what you think is right.

And sometimes the experts get it wrong and it's the least likely marketing hype/copy that gets the best response. Go figure!

But this is what keeps us marketers interested as it's never boring as it is unpredictable.

Patti