Marketing - An art or a science?
Posted 05-27-2009 at 07:35 AM by megaresp
I've just had an interesting discussion in these forums about whether marketing is an art or a science. My conclusion? It's both, and neither 
Marketing has aspects of art, and aspects of the social sciences. For example, marketing draws heavily on research done into human behaviour.
Marketing isn't a hard science, and the use of math doesn't make it one. In the hard sciences, long-established laws and theories produce predictable outcomes every single time. This doesn't happen in marketing, just as it doesn't in the social sciences.
Run an ad 100 times, and you'll get 100 different results. Some will make you a profit, while others won't. Contrast this with gravity. Gravity here on Earth at sea level is always 1G, no matter how many times we measure it. Likewise in chemistry: You're never going to drop sodium into water, and not see a satisfyingly violent reaction.
Ultimately, I've concluded that while marketing borrows from both art and science - it is its own thing.
Marketing has aspects of art, and aspects of the social sciences. For example, marketing draws heavily on research done into human behaviour.
Marketing isn't a hard science, and the use of math doesn't make it one. In the hard sciences, long-established laws and theories produce predictable outcomes every single time. This doesn't happen in marketing, just as it doesn't in the social sciences.
Run an ad 100 times, and you'll get 100 different results. Some will make you a profit, while others won't. Contrast this with gravity. Gravity here on Earth at sea level is always 1G, no matter how many times we measure it. Likewise in chemistry: You're never going to drop sodium into water, and not see a satisfyingly violent reaction.
Ultimately, I've concluded that while marketing borrows from both art and science - it is its own thing.
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