Art or Science?

Debates continue on the evaluation of marketing as an art or a science. From my perspective, marketing applies both art and science, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

Marketing by its nature is a creative pursuit. You open your imagination and think of creative ways to attract people to your products, your business, and your messages. You can see many examples of this artistry when you consider some of the best advertising, creative tradeshow booths, a presentation that captures its audience well, or a piece of product literature that captures your interest from the start. Emphasizing the point even further, you can tell when poor creativity has resulted in poor marketing -- like those instances where someone in engineering decided to take a crack on your latest customer presentation and simply misses the mark. Creativity is very important to sound execution of marketing efforts.

On the science side of the house, marketing should not dimiss the fundamentals of product, place, price, and promotion. To execute the four P's properly, guessing is often not the most productive path to take. Research, analytics, measurements, and targeted tactics enable you to pinpoint the proper markets and make the most of your marketing investments. Additionally, by using specific measureable efforts, you can more clearly communicate to business stakeholders the plan, efforts, and progress made through your marketing investments.

By applying art and science together, you make the best of marketing. Movng forward, look for ways to apply both science and art to your marketing efforts.

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