Is marketing art or science? - Swan Htet Aung

I defined art to be subjective and science to be objective. When someone asked me whether marketing is art or science, I believe that I cannot give a definite answer. Marketing itself is a broad subject. Marketing can be considered art in 1900’s due to the limited data that we could gather. Science is based upon facts, the usage and analysis of data. Since gathering data was limited during that time, marketing can be considered a art.

However if we are looked the modern era , technology has made it possible for marketers to gather data all over the world . There seems to be personalized ads that are tailor to specific individual. Big Data has opened a new possible way to the marketer. Technology has given a way to deal with people’s unpredictability by using a lot of people’s personal information Therefore , can marketing can also be considered science? I believe not so. When Steve Jobs first think an idea of iPhone and introduce people a revolutionary phone that have a lasting impacts on society, could he have dared to introduced that phone when he believe that marketing is science? If he really believed that marketing is science, he would not introduce the phone as in a science perspective. He would gather data and ponder as people have not been familiar with a big screen phone and phone with buttons are popular compared to a touch screen phone. Thinking in science perspective would have made him reconsider introducing iPhone based on the data he can gather as facts may prove that iPhone cannot be popular. It is thinking in  art perspective that made him introduce I phone as his personal experience and his unique idea made hime believe that I phone can become a global phenom .

By looking at the two examples above, I believe that marketing cannot be considered art or science. I considered marketing to be a combination of art and science . Service- oriented marketing is current marketing trend . Technological advancement have closed the gaps  of product ,place , price among marketing competitors. Only promotion remain a variable that marketers can  compete each other . I have seen example of smartphone such as iPhone, Samsung which have very little miniscule technological difference in their product. And, the way promotes their phone and their pricing seems do not make a difference. It is promotion which can make a difference. Apple has a unique store policy that does not allow employers to correct customer mistakes when the customers mispronounced their products. I think that it serves to avoid customer confrontations and is not considered polite to correct customer in business sense. That unique policy may have made apple instore service feel special as it would have customer embarrassment when they mispronounced the products. Other would be Apple rarely discount their phone products. It is served to control Apple’s product price so that the value of phone will not drop and customers will not fell cheated due to the drop in price .I can consider this to be an art because apple’s peculiar policy come from observation and their feelings rather than from data and facts. However product, price, place  gaps have become narrowed because science have allowed people to gather data easily and made a counterplan based on the data.

Therefore, I consider marketing to be interchanging between art and science. I also believed that marketing can purely become science or art depending on the situation