Intelligent Economy

Despite the current interest in business intelligence and analytical competition, it is important to understand that business -- as with all human endeavors -- relies on creativity and imagination. That was a key theme in Naras Eechambadi's recent book High Performance Marketing (which, full disclosure, I helped to produce). The book recognized the importance of reconciling "art" and "science" in the field of marketing -- a point that could be applied to business more generally.

"This conceptual schism merely creates barriers and conflicts where none need exist," states the book. "It provokes needless arguments and wastes precious time. We need to get beyond this long-running, yet pointless, debate."

As the book puts it, "consistent, measurable results will always be impossible to achieve without compelling, creative endeavors and initiatives that build value in the marketplace. There is, in fact, much evidence that the emotional power of 'charismatic' brands and 'engaging' experiences becomes even more important as customer choices proliferate and the pace of life quickens."

Naras further points out that we should be "looking ahead to an era of marketing in which discipline drives dynamism and dynamism delivers impressive results. Dynamism...is an essential force in the rise and continuing success of great companies. It is the energy, excitement and compelling value we bring to the market – the gravitational pull that draws our customers close and deepens our connection to them."

Now, the argument is being bolstered by marketing pioneers Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. Here's how they put it in their newsletter Inside1to1:

Companies are awash in customer data these days. Web tracking technology, data capture and warehousing, and various other tools make it easy to delude yourself into thinking that you now have a psychic-like knowledge of almost everything a customer buys, communicates, and says to friends about your company.

The problem is that the actual customer insights you have will almost never match up to the expectations created by the deluge of data. And evidence is starting to suggest many companies are developing an unhealthy reliance on this customer data, sometimes using it as a crutch to support a lack of creativity or imagination when dealing with their customers.

Peppers and Rogers go on to point out that data, measurement and analysis can help companies spend their marketing dollars more efficiently, but it won't necessarily help one imagine, design and craft the products that will take companies to new levels. There's a reason that Spock wasn't the captain of the starship.

They urge us to seek and develop the "engines of creativity" that will differentiate us in the market and create exceptional new forms of customer value. Customer analysis and feedback should be treated as part of a guidance system, but not an end in themselves. They quote Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment: "Encourage uncertainty, because it's a fertile ground for new ideas... You have to build possibility, not just probability, into the equation."