New College Degree: Marketing Engineering

I believe consumer marketing has fundamentally changed – online has been the catalyst of this change as every user, intention, and action is trackable and hypotheses can be tested and validated in minutes.  This will move into other marketing channels – e.g.  TV as it goes more digital (note the Google-NBC announcement for the selling of broadcast TV in their online marketplace), print media (e-books), and of course outdoor (digital signage). Its not just change in customer acquisition either – it extends into the areas of customer retention and  loyalty as well.  Again, every action is trackable and hypotheses on why consumers buy at the right price points or become loyal can be tested and changed in real time.

Meanwhile, I feel the academic world of marketing education has not kept up with the change.    Marketing is often viewed as a “soft” and less rigorous major that one takes if they are more interested in boozing their way through college. The “brains” go for engineering, math, or medicine.  The reality is that in todays world technology innovation is increasingly commoditized and the marketing edge is what matters.   Marketing is more like applied math or engineering where the scientific method (hypotheses followed by testing followed by conclusions) yields the results -  with a twist of psychology thrown in…   The marketer has to use their understanding of human behavior, needs, wants via psychology and come up with hypotheses on the best way to get the consumer to an action – then test all these in real time (often multivariate testing as each text or image or color can and should change) and deploy – and then test all over again….

 

There is clearly strong demand for these type of people in every startup I’ve worked with.  There have been countless mistakes made in hiring a “brand marketer’ who doesn’t get “digital marketing”.  We are in need of more talent – even here in silicon valley.  I think schools should step up and help fill the long term void by teaching the new marketing.  Marketing engineering could be one of the most valuable professions and become what every smart bright-eyed college student aspires to conquer…

Comments

[Christoph Jaggi]

Rajil,

marketing depends on a lot of different factors and all of those factors are variables. Some of those factors can be changed by the marketer, some of them are completely outside of his control. The challenge is to understand the characteristics, the dynamics and the interrelations of those different factors and find a solution that tilts the dynamics in your favor. There is only a limited subset of the required skill set and knowledge that can be tought at school, be that at college or at university level. It is only in practice that you really start to understand the multitude of factors that come into play.
While I agree that online has changed consumer and B2B marketing, it hasn't changed the fundamentals of it. Online can help in understanding certain aspects of a specific market and can assist in changing market dynamics, but it is just one small part of marketing.

[Ming Yeow Ng]

Hi Raj, great article. The point you brought up in exactly right - marketers think of the world in very "soft ways" - PR, advertising, messaging, without an understanding of leveraging data nor communication technologies. Engineers are often too stuck in solving technical problems, and unable to think out of the box to understand highly important stuff like understanding of customers. My friend, who runs Digital Arm of Edelman APAC has a computer science background, and that is certainly of tremendous help.

See you at the Alpha Dinner later on!

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