The Concept of Marketing as an Art or Science - Essay Example

Is Marketing Management An Art Or Science? Introduction In today's world, marketing is treated differently. Marketing is not only restricted till selling of goods and services. In most of the companies, managers believe that marketing means distribution of goods, promotion, pricing and sales but it is not, marketing means how to satisfy customers by fulfilling their needs and wants by providing quality products and services and on the basis if these how organisation can achieve its goals and objectives. The concept of marketing is broadened on the basis of customer requirements. Marketing managers should put customers in central for making decisions. If organisation does not care about customers, it cannot achieve its goals and objectives. Marketing managers should always get the information about market by doing market research so that they can know about the trends of the market and views of the customers. On the basis of this, organisation can introduce products or services that can satisfy customer. Discussion Marketing Management as an art Art Needs Skills As arts requires skills so does marketing management. Skills like conceptual, technical, creativity & decision making comprise management. To perform marketing management functions properly one needs to have clarity of concept as to what, where, how, why etc (Naresh p 4). Technical skills and know how is also important as it streamlines the functions & increases the efficiency. It can also be stated as an art because it requires a lot of inputs by way of facts & analysis of the product or the marketing plan (Nicholas p15). Art Requires Knowledge Marketing Management needs knowledge and information from various areas like finance, technology, production etc. As art needs inputs from other areas so does management. To manage effectively & efficiently one would require information from different fields. Information of how, what ,where in production, how & by what means in marketing, what is the latest update and how it can be used to increase the efficiency in technology & last but not the least the monetary aspect being the financial terms of how to obtain finance to complete the task in hand. All this requires Information i.e. Knowledge. Art Has Creativity Marketing Management is a form art as it requires creativity. The aspect of creativity is very prominent in marketing & competition. If a company plans to launch a new product in market then there would be a series of functions it would follow (Anderson p18). As it would first do a market research, know about the competitors & their products. Then plan, & implement new marketing strategies for their products. All this requires artistic skills. The formula for success lies in implementing unique marketing strategy such as to attract the customers hence creating a need for the product. Personalizing As an Aspect of Marketing Management Personalizing is as aspect of marketing management as it is as integral part of art. As each person has his own way to personalize art, he has his own style of doing it likewise in management each person can have his own style of managing. Performance as an Aspect of Marketing Management As a good, bad or an average art performance has bench marks or so called performance indicators like wise marketing Management can also understood by performance indicators like how successful the product was etc. Marketing Management as a Science Marketing Management can also be considered as a science because it has certain features that are similar to it. Science can be social science. Marketing Management involves utilization of knowledge, innovative ideas, reasoning, analysis, implementation, directing, controlling. The features that science has as a subject are shared by management (Alderson p 137). Science can be divided into two types perfect science and Social science. .Science consists of knowledge As science is an organized body of knowledge likewise it also is an integral part of management. Knowledge of how, what, where, when etc, & the proper information of resources, for their effective utilization, information for efficient performance all is involved in science. Hence marketing management also shows has these features. Time Factor As science can be developed over a period of time so is marketing management. No one can become an effective & efficient manager overnight (Cole p23). For an individual to become a marketing manager one has to struggle & learn the aspects of marketing t then implement it in a surrounding where there would be other individuals. Then over a period of time after sufficient experience the person can become a manager. After a time period spent over exercising & implementing marketing aspects. The Action-Reaction Phenomenon Science explains action & equal and opposite reaction i.e. cause & effect aspect. As per the 3rd law of Newton in physics "Every action has an equal & opposite reaction." As science explains this aspect the same is also valid for marketing management. In marketing management whatever a manager takes decision will cause an effect on how successful the product is (Arndt, p11). Predictive Power As science has predictive power so does marketing management. If the marketing management decisions are correct & taken after proper evaluation of the facts and figures along with the consideration of the market and the competitors then this would determine how successful the product will be. This can predict the future of the business and the market trends (Paul & Jerry p111). This would also enable to take up a decision as to what should be the next course of action. Constant renewal of Rules As in science there is a regular change in the theories or rules set by experts depending on the new proven facts & figures like wise in marketing management too the rules & regulations keep varying as per time. In marketing management also there are changes that keep occurring depending on the new and improvised versions of fact and analysis of data so as to enable better forecasting of business (Brown p167). The old rules, terms and conditions are verified regularly and are replaced with new ones for better performance and result. Two Aspects of Science Science can be of two types namely Perfect science and Social science. Marketing Management can be categorized as social science as it includes history of management thought. The probability factor in marketing management is very similar as it is in social science. The probability factor like may or may be if's and but's apply to the scenarios where there are interlinked events (Bartels p319). Like, by increasing the investment in marketing strategies of any organization there is a possibility that the response from the market will increase, in other words the sales would increase. This aspect of probability makes marketing management as a social science. Conclusion Marketing Management is both art and science. It is the art of making the product more effective than it would have been without you. The science is in how you do that. Even though marketing managers might make an effort to be scientific as much as probable, they have to often make decisions as well as solve problems on the base of intuition, knowledge, instinct, personal experiences. Relying heavily on conceptual and interpersonal skills for example, a manager may have to decide between multiple courses of action that look equally attractive. Solving unusual and non-routine problems almost certainly requires an element of intuition, emotions and personal insight. Although science of management provides valuable information on how to manage human resources effectively to get optimal results but still it is not possible to, or can be counter productive, if the management techniques are applied without giving due consideration to different situations and varied human behaviours. In short a successful manger is the one who uses science of management in an artful manner and get best possible results. Work Cited Alderson, W., Cox, R. "Towards a theory of marketing", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 13 1948 pp.137-52. Anderson, "Marketing science where’s the beef?” Business Horizons, Vol. 37 No.1, 1994 pp.8-16. Anderson, P.F, "Marketing, scientific progress and scientific method", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47 1983 pp.18-31. Arndt, J.;"Marketing science", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49 1985 pp.11-23. Bartels, R; "Can marketing be a science?” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 16 19851pp.319-28. Brown Stephen; Marketing science in a post-modern world introduction to the special issue Journal European Journal of Marketing Volume 31 Publisher MCB UP Ltd 1997 pp167 - 182 Cole, D, The Complete Guide to Book Marketing Allworth Press; Revised edition 2004 p 23 J. Paul Peter and Jerry c. Olson, "Is science Marketing?" Journal of Marketing, Fall 1983, pp. 111-125. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 1988 16 4-24 Naresh K. Malhotra, Some Observations on the State of the Art in Marketing Research Nicholas C. Peroff; Is Management an Art or a Science? A Clue in Consilience Journal article Emergence, Vol. 1. 1999 p 15. Read More