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On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 07:36:48PM -0400, Richard Pieri wrote:
> Derek Martin wrote:
> >presentation of their message.  Marketeers obvously aren't attaching
> >electrodes to people's brains (at least, not as a rule), but a lot of
> >marketing data gathering involves statistical analysis of surveys and
> >focus group studies...  exactly like the application of those things
> >in psychological studies (theoretical science).  They also apply the
> 
> If you recall, I wrote this earlier today:
> >>Yes, it is. Marketing -- at least some aspects of it -- is a
> >>scientific process.
> 
> This does not make marketing a science. Science is the rigorous
> application of experimentation and observation with the purpose of
> identifying and proving facts. 
That's one definition of science, one that's specifically tailored to
maximize your argument's "correctness".  Others, taken directly from
the dictionary, include these:
  - a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study <the
    science of theology>
  - something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned
    like systematized knowledge 
  - knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the
    operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested
    through scientific method
  - a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws
    <cooking is both a science and an art>
All of these can be applied to make marketing a science, and as I
said, in those ways, it is as much a science as sociology or
psychology.  Or computer science, for that matter.  All involve
studying how things (or people) work, and all involve applying that
knowledge to an end.  Science.
-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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