From Science Class to Marketing: Why We Need Critical Thinking
My trust in education eroded over time, from preparatory school to high school and finally at university. There are many reasons for this, but one incident in high school stands out as a profound failure in teaching.
A science teacher posed a question: “Which will reach the bottom of a hill first, a car or a bus?” The question itself was flawed. There’s no way to know for sure without additional information. Unsurprisingly, most students excitedly shouted “The car!”
It cannot all be about data
Rational thinking uses available knowledge to form an answer. Based on what we know about cars and buses, the car seems like the faster option. It’s smaller, lighter, and might have a more powerful engine. Everything about a car suggests it would reach the destination first. A bus, on the other hand, is large and heavy, implying slower speeds.
But critical thinking goes beyond simply using available knowledge. It involves questioning the information provided and exploring possibilities beyond the obvious. From a scientific standpoint, the original question is wrong. The better question would have been, “How can we find out if a bus or a car would reach the bottom of a hill first?”
This question leads to the correct scientific approach: experimentation. To conduct a fair experiment, we need parameters, controls, constants, and variables. The first step would be to remove the engines from both vehicles and ensure they roll freely down the hill. Engines have compression, which would influence the outcome. The next step would be to define the hill. Ideally, it should be free of variables, creating a level playing field. Physics then dictates that the heavier object, the bus, would be favored by gravity.
Until the experiment is conducted, we cannot say for sure which vehicle would reach the bottom first. Even with our knowledge of physics, everything remains theoretical until the results are in.
This lack of critical thinking is prevalent in marketing and advertising as well. We often ask the wrong questions and seek answers that confirm our biases. We make assumptions about markets, people, and products, and base our strategies on those assumptions. We shun quality processes and reject testing. When results are unfavorable, we blame the client or external factors, anything but our strategy or the fact that our assumptions were flawed and lacked proper research.
Confirmation bias, our tendency to favor information that confirms our existing beliefs, is a major culprit behind ineffective marketing. This bias can lead to wasted resources, ineffective campaigns, and limited reach. Data itself isn’t inherently objective, even though we often treat it as such. How we collect, analyze, and present data can all introduce bias.
Imagine a bag of apples representing data. How we fill the bag (collection), how many we take out (selection), and how we arrange them (presentation) all influence what we think about the apples (the data).
To achieve better outcomes, we need diverse perspectives fostered by multidisciplinary teams. We need to embrace data analysis and experimentation.
The online marketing conversation often gets muddled. There are separate discussions about advertising and branding, but everything else gets lumped in between. It’s easy to distinguish those with experience in marketing and advertising from those without. Marketing and advertising are one industry, and everything else, like brand design, is a process within that industry. This lack of understanding might explain why some digital marketing efforts seem frivolous.
Some marketers come from unorthodox backgrounds, perhaps promoting successful events and transitioning into marketing roles through connections. While such journeys can be interesting, these individuals often suffer from the “know-it-all” syndrome, despite lacking a strong foundation in marketing principles. Their strategies become cookie-cutter replicas, efficient but limited in their effectiveness. Just like a cookie cutter, they can only create the shapes they were designed for.
It is important to remember that data are the results of actions, otherwise, there would be no data. We must understand the source or actions, perhaps people, that produced the data before simply using it.
By fostering critical thinking and embracing a more critical approach, we can improve marketing and advertising strategies, ultimately leading to better results.
