The Science of the Brands: Alchemy, Advertising and Accountancy

Abstract

This paper explores whether there are any guiding reasons for the loss of heart that seems to have afflicted Marketing and its various sub-disciplines over the last few years. Just witness the outpouring of dismal negativity that is unleashed on podia and in books with greater and greater frequency. Marketing practitioners bemoan the failure rates of new products, or the glacial speed of developing new products to market; agencies lament that they are not producing cutting-edge ideas for their clients, who are in turn putting their best ideas to the sword of research; Creatives, most usually at the sharp end of this sword, turn to their Planners to get them out of this Research and Destroy Culture. Planners then pass the buck to the Market Researchers accusing them of bringing nothing new to creative development or brand measurement since whenever. What lies beneath this malaise, it is believed, is a rearguard belief in the science of management and marketing which is deeply flawed in two ways as discussed in the paper.

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