Marketing A Science and an Art
When I first started in marketing, I believed it was a highly creative role—more about art than science, even though I was marketing science-related products. I wondered whether I’d be able to transition into marketing after spending years working in laboratories. However, as I gained more experience, I realised that marketing is as much a science as it is an art.
In my mind, science is about testing theories, taking measurements and analysing data to improve your next set of experiments. And isn’t that exactly what marketing involves? We create a campaign—whether that’s online, on paper, via audio, or video—and then we run that campaign.
The Science of Marketing
The key to successful marketing lies in measuring the results of your campaign against the objectives set at the outset. Whether your goal is to generate more sales, raise brand awareness, increase website traffic or promote an event, you must evaluate the results against your initial hypothesis.
As Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Once you’ve measured your campaign’s success, you can begin managing it with a view to continuous improvement. This might involve refining your targeting, using more engaging imagery or focusing on the most effective channels. Every aspect can be tweaked and improved.
Real-Time Data: The Modern Marketer’s Advantage
With today’s social media platforms, the time it takes to go through this iterative process is now reduced to days—or even hours. Gone are the days when you had to wait weeks for sales data or audience figures. Now, you can view real-time engagement with your message or advertisement. It’s also incredibly easy to run multiple messages or ads at once, allowing you to stop underperforming ones and enhance those that are working better.
The Art of Marketing
On the other hand, marketing is also an art. Creativity plays a crucial role in developing engaging content, designing eye-catching visuals and crafting compelling narratives that resonate with your target audience. The most successful campaigns strike a balance between artistic creativity and scientific analysis.
It’s this harmonious blend of the two that allows a campaign to reach its full potential. Creativity attracts attention, while data-driven insights refine and improve your approach, ensuring your efforts are effective.
The Perfect Marriage of Art and Science
I believe that effective marketing is a balance of artistic creativity and scientific analysis. Only by merging the two can you create campaigns that not only captivate your audience but also deliver measurable, impactful results.
At The Last Hurdle, we specialise in business development, helping SMEs achieve their goals through a strategic blend of creativity and data-driven marketing. Let us help you craft a campaign that works.
Dr Trevor Ray
