Essay
The Operator's View of Marketing Science
How to read the research as someone who builds and runs systems.
Marketing science is the empirical study of how brands grow and how buyers behave. The research is rigorous, extensive, and largely ignored by practitioners. Most marketing professionals know the buzzwords but have not read the papers.
Operators face a particular challenge with marketing science. The research is written for academics. The findings apply to large brands. The implications for people building and running systems are not always obvious. Here is how I approach it.
What Marketing Science Actually Is
Marketing science is not marketing theory. It is not thought leadership. It is not best practices. It is empirical research, studying actual buying behavior across real brands and real categories.
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia has produced decades of this research. They study panel data, actual purchases by actual people over time. They identify patterns that replicate across categories, countries, and decades.
The IPA Effectiveness Awards database offers another source. Thousands of case studies documenting what marketing activities produced what business results. Patterns emerge from the aggregate.
This is not opinion. It is observation. The patterns might be uncomfortable or counterintuitive, but they are what the data shows.
Core Findings Relevant to Operators
Several findings from marketing science are particularly relevant for operators:
Penetration drives growth. Brands grow primarily by acquiring new and light buyers, not by increasing loyalty among existing customers. This shapes how you think about demand capture strategy.
Mental availability predicts share. The probability of being thought of in buying situations correlates with market share. This shapes how you think about marketing investment.
Category Entry Points drive consideration. Buyers enter categories through specific situations and needs. Linking your brand to more CEPs increases mental availability.
Distinctiveness beats differentiation. Being recognizable matters more than being meaningfully different. This shapes how you think about brand building.
Loyalty is overrated. Loyalty metrics largely follow market share rather than driving it. This shapes how you allocate retention versus acquisition resources.
Translating Research to Operations
Marketing science often studies large CPG brands. How does this translate to a local service business or a B2B company?
The principles generalize; the tactics adapt:
Penetration applies at any scale. Whether you are Coca-Cola or a local plumber, growth comes from reaching more buyers. The relevant market is different, but the mechanism is the same.
Mental availability is local. For a local business, mental availability means being the business that comes to mind in the service area. Google search presence becomes a proxy for mental availability.
Category Entry Points exist everywhere. Emergency needs, planned projects, preventive maintenance. Different CEPs with different characteristics. Map them for your category.
Distinctiveness scales down. Even local businesses benefit from distinctive visual identity. The same principles apply at smaller scale.
Reading the Research
Practical recommendations for engaging with marketing science:
Read primary sources. Byron Sharp's "How Brands Grow" is accessible. Jenni Romaniuk's work on distinctive assets and CEPs is essential. The library has recommendations.
Beware of summaries. Second-hand accounts often distort findings. "How Brands Grow" does not say all advertising works the same way. It says different things than many summaries claim.
Understand the methodology. Know how the research was done, what it can and cannot claim. Panel data shows patterns; it does not prove causation.
Look for replication. Findings that replicate across studies, categories, and time periods are more reliable than single-study results.
Consider the context. Research on CPG brands may or may not apply to your situation. Use judgment about transferability.
What the Research Does Not Tell You
Marketing science has limitations:
It describes, does not prescribe. The research shows how brands typically grow. It does not tell you exactly what to do for your specific brand.
It studies aggregates. Patterns that hold across brands may not hold for any individual brand in any specific situation.
It focuses on brand building. Less to say about performance marketing, direct response, or operational execution.
It is backward-looking. Research on past patterns may not predict future patterns in changed environments.
Integration with Systems Thinking
Systems scale judgment. Marketing science provides judgment worth scaling. Understanding how brands actually grow informs what judgment to encode.
Demand capture systems benefit from understanding CEPs and mental availability. What triggers people to search? What makes them choose you? The research provides frameworks.
Follow-up infrastructure benefits from understanding that most buyers are light buyers. You may only get one chance; the follow-up must work.
The Practical Payoff
Why bother with marketing science as an operator?
Avoid common mistakes. Many marketing investments fail because they violate principles that research has established. Understanding the research helps avoid predictable failures.
Allocate resources wisely. Penetration versus loyalty. Reach versus targeting. Brand versus activation. The research provides frameworks for allocation decisions.
Challenge conventional wisdom. Much marketing advice contradicts what research shows. Knowing the research gives you grounds to question bad advice.
Build better systems. Systems encode assumptions. Better assumptions produce better systems. Marketing science refines assumptions.