Is Marketing Science or Arts Essay Example For Students

Is Marketing Science or Arts Essay Introduction The debating question concerning marketing whether it is a form of science or art has long been a controversial subject. Scholars over the past several decades have constantly argued attempting to classify and prove the term marketing belonging into either the art and science category. Marketing is derived by which a product/service originate, priced, promoted and placed,distributed to people Who consume them. It involves lots Of preparations, developments. Organizing and decision making for all the four P(s) of marketing. Peoples general misconception of the term marketing is that it is n artistic field whereby the role of marketers is to be creative, innovative and thus cook up impressive actions and put their ideas ranging from product adverts, slogans, logos and mascots across the board. What people fail to realize is that beneath all above, there lies the strategic science that revolves the four fundamental P(s) of marketing the product, price, place/distribution strategy that needs to be developed and finally the promotion . The scientific classification for marketing is divided into a group of four factors ranging from practicality, knowledge based, academic based as well as intellectual needs. This essay will focus on some of key factors to argue the point that while marketing as an activity does tend to involve artistic endeavors requiring creativity on the part of marketers, the core of marketing itself as a subject matter is that its very much grounded in the principles of social science, like psychology, for example. Discussion Marketing Is Science: In the past, academics like Avail (1949). Barrels (1951), Hutchinson (1952) and Bezel (1963) have strongly affirmed that marketing is a form of an art due to the complexity of marketplace behaviors was impossible to be formulated based on harries. Avail (1949) believes that innovation, creativity with styles and intuitive feel is what appeals to consumers for a particular product or service. On the contrary, we have another group of academics that stands on the other side arguing that marketing is indeed science, people like Converse (1945), Brown (1948), Alderman and Cox (1948), Kettle (1972) and Hunt (1976). Cayman (1999) states that his fundamental belief of marketing is that is not just alchemy or art but rather it is science because marketing needs to be carried out in accordance to business principles. It is a strategic activity focusing on a discipline and using the right tools to carry it out Again, Cayman (1999) affirms that marketers whose focus is merely based on creativity are bound to have plenty of ideas but not when it comes to sales. It is certainly undeniable that marketing jobs requires some artistic facets to attract consumers to their products or services in the vein Of innovative tastiness, slogans, design and packaging but these artistic elements do not just appear out of thin air but from methodological advancement Of studies be it behavioral science or business areas as well as sociology Sutton and Klein (2003) claims that marketers are businessperson and their role is not merely consisting of being imaginatively trendy. It is therefore a marketers accountability to contribute intellectual research and process discipline to the enterprise marketing management. Marketers must have hypothesis of marketing hopes versus marketing expectations to achieve based on a scientific methodology and setting out to experiment it. The common marketing failures are due to the incapability of marketers to apply knowledge of their clients to position their brands, inability to effectively market their brands ended traditional media plus failure to create necessary customer processes due to lacking of culture and organization information for brand management. Arrant (1985) in his own words quoted that Even a cursory perusal of scholarly articles in marketing journals is bound to confirm dominant status of logical empiricism. He then further qualified that with proper resources such as technology and correct instruments, marketers would be able to produce and more pragmatic manner to solve any marketing issues. The diagram above further illustrates Arrant scientific marketing theory by viding four factors (subjective, Objective, harmony and conflict) containing four models (logical empiricist, sociopolitical, subjective world and liberation). Marketing Institutes and Association Generally, science is classified as a method by which scientists and academics venture to erect a precise, consistent and logical representation or interpretation of a particular subject. Science also involves empirical research or otherwise knowledge, especially gained through experience. Referring back to the milestones of marketing development, The American Marketing Association, a professional association for individuals and companies relied associated with marketing was founded in 1937 and based in North America. The establishment of AMA was resulted in a merger of National Association of Marketing Teachers (MAT) and American Marketing Society (AMASS). Mamas website (2004) approved and defined the role of marketing as a linkage between buyers and sellers through a flow of information which is used to identify and define the marketing prospects and issues from generating, refining and evaluating marketing actions to monitoring marketing performance as well as improving the understanding of marketing as a process. Nonverbal communication EssayInevitably, this focus on marketing measurement not only kept Wichita on top of its game in business, but also consistently put Wichita on Fortunes top 100 places to work list. Another organization that heavily emphasizes a culture of accountability and insurability for marketing activities is Frito Lay, where access to real time data due to its direct store delivery model makes the company able to respond quickly to the effects Of marketing actions. Measurement Of marketing impact is not just the job of the marketing department but also has permeated to the upper levels Of this organizations management (Thomas, Woodard Reportable 2008). Marketing Anthropology and Sociology Marketing academics have provided their insights of their individual theories when it comes to marketing and its co-relation to social science, Kaplan (1964) defines theory as a system of laws whereby the laws are modified into a methodical correlation between one another. It is clear that since marketing as a science concerns transactions between buyer and seller which happens in a social world, marketing is actually a social science. In fact, it can he said that both marketing scholars and managers basically study human behavior (Zinnias Hierarchies, 1992). When it comes to marketing anthropology, there are various ways to categorize research community which basically refers to the buyers and customers (Peter and Olson 19831 Organizations need to take into consideration what potential customers are seeking in order to cater to market the products or services. Therefore, in Order to achieve this, it will involve various mathematical modeling, search and surveys on demographics, geographical factors and customer behaviors. According to Dowling (2004), it is a complex process to understand the psychology behind the motivation of consumers purchasing decisions. Therefore it is crucial to build a strategic research technique to study the behavioral science of consumers which are generalizations, structural frameworks, strategic recommendations and market-sensing principles. Already it can be seen that in the sub-areas of marketing such as consumer behavior, sales management and channel behavior, marketing has already evolved from creative research to one fraught with theories and a collection of problem statements needing evaluation and tests (Anderson 1983). As early as asses, Barrels (1951) has concluded that for marketing to become a proper science, has to evolve from a purely business-world tool to one that has a number of basic irrefutable principles or theories. This evolution from business to science must he jointly worked on by both marketers and social scientists, the former to formulate basic hypotheses based on their real-world experiences and the latter to refute or support the hypotheses by way of experimentation and observation. Admittedly, marketing has a long way to go before it can be recognized as a fully fledged social science discipline. When compared to more established social sciences, like economics, for example, marketing still carries the perception that it is a subject that does not prioritize the principle of knowledge acquisition or the drive to improve human society. Unfortunately, many still see marketing as fulfilling the needs Of only a specific segment Of society; name the commercial sector (Anderson 1983). On a positive note, Hunt (1383) postulated that marketing is progressing in this rear on a good pace. He listed 4 sets Of marketing fundamentals that need to be scientifically explained: 1. Buyer behavior 2. Sel ler behavior 3. Institutional frameworks which facilitate buyer-seller exchanges 4. The consequences of 1-3 on society in general With progress being made on at least 3 of the 4 fundamentals shown above, he is positive that given sufficient time and effort, like other recognized social sciences, marketing would one day have its own tried, proven and testable general theories. Conclusion Marketing as a science may not be as established or mature in comparison to Other social sciences such as psychology but it is also not a purely artistic subject matter. The ongoing argument regarding marketing being art or science is likely one that Will not be concluded anytime soon but it is clear that serious efforts have been made and are still being made to establish the fundamental rules and measurable theories and hypotheses to push marketing up the scientific ladder. The argument that marketing cannot be made a science does not hold water as essentially, marketing is the study of the human condition albeit not just a mental science like psychology regardless of location, and race, culture and elision, human response to stimuli are basically not markedly different. The wants and the needs may differ slightly, but the basics of human behavior do not change. It is important that some ground rules be created in the continuing study of marketing and in the implementation of marketing ideas. A good job is no longer just a matter of opinion, hearsay or guesswork much work has to be done to analyze, calculate and predict and eventually measure the results and effectiveness tot a marketing effort. There is a clear need for this especially now that the business world has become so much more complex.