Marketing, Art or Science?

art or science?

Trick question, because the answer is both, as you know.

But how much of marketing is art and how much is science? The Australian CMO of a software firm says today's marketing is 70% science, 30% art. Basically, if you're not using science (meaning sophisticated analyses, Big Data, etc.) to inform decisions, you're not optimizing your business...but without the creativity of art, marketing can't touch hearts and minds.

Other marketing execs agree that science is an integral part of targeting, in particular. In the quest for "right time, right place, right message," a YouTube marketing exec argues that the science angle is helping pinpoint the right time and right place, but the art angle is the key ingredient in the right message, critical for brand "magic."

The CMO of Progressive Insurance comments that "A lot of marketers are so proud of their art but they don't know their science." In fact Progressive relies on the art for quirky commercials starring Flo and a cast of characters that engage audiences. But the company also has in-house media buying so it can control exactly what gets placed where and when--the science. "We're not going to outspend anybody. We're going to out-create them," is how he says Progressive competes in an intense marketplace.

The head of strategy at an agency notes: "There are cases where all evidence points to a course of action or where intuition has to prevail and we need to be careful to take these chances even where we know measurement is thin." In other words, trust to creativity for breakthrough marketing.

In the end, effectiveness is what matters the most, measured by metrics that relate to strategic KPIs (key performance indicators). And science can help marketers do a better job of planning, testing, and measuring effectiveness of the art in brand communication. Art and science for today's marketing!