The Two Most Important Words in Marketing

*The most dramatic advances in human development over the past century can be summed up in two words: “if then.” That phrase sums up all the power unleashed by the age of computing. Fueled by Moore’s law, the path from the Babbage Machine curiosity of 1822 to IBM’s Watson is an exponential acceleration in the if/then processes we can manipulate in a given time. The algorithm, or the ability to perform complex tasks with a cascade of simpler If/Then actions, has yielded stunning advances in machinery, medicine, communications and artificial intelligence that are redefining our lives on several levels.

It may seem a stretch to tie those lofty heights to the earthier world of marketing. Yet it’s as true for marketing as it is for any human endeavor that future advances lie in more fully harnessing the force of If/Then. We see the early effects in the rise of programmatic media. Programmatic advertising allows marketers to perform instantaneous if/then decisions across millions of potential customers and thousands of destinations. It is now a question of when, not if, all media will be programmatic. As significant as that is, media purchase and delivery is not the full extent of its impact.

With only a small degree of oversimplification, all marketing can be translated into the If/Then processes. In fact, it harnesses the two areas that are currently most at the tip of every CMO’s tongue: Data and Content. That’s because Data feeds the If, and Content provides the Then. Data signals the people and the context around them that spur an adept marketer to act. Content is the action the marketer takes to react to that signal. So if Home Depot sees a suburban homeowner within a mile of their store on a warm April day, then it forwards Spring planting tips and an offer from their Gardening Center. The response generates data that sets up the follow-on If/Then. If the Spring planting tips led to a purchase, then gauge their interest in a Loyalty program for the summer ahead. The effectiveness of the marketing correlates with the depth and breadth of If/Then branches the marketer can meaningfully define.

The Art vs. Science group might argue that applying the If/Then paradigm to its logical extreme overlooks the human factor that underlies the best marketing. In that view, the most successful brands, the ones that inspire deep-seated passion and loyalty like Harley Davidson and Nike, exist in an emotional territory above the mechanical abilities of If/Then algorithms. And of course, they’d be wrong. If/Then unleashes creativity rather than constrains it. It’s true that you’ll get mechanical transactional marketing if all you feed into the If is mechanical transactional data. But if you feed individual interests and passions into the Ifs, you uncover ways to forge even more meaningful human connections. Imagine how much more value a marketer could deliver to a runner who just had a child, or who’s on a business trip away from their regular running route, then it could to just a runner who is due for a new pair of shoes. The If/Then approach allows marketers to deliver on that kind of potential at a scale and sophistication that evades today’s most intimate marketer.

* this topic was inspired by a discussion with Baba Shetty, a brilliant thinker on various topics including commercial media