Darwinian vs Creationist Marketing

2010

Since I started teaching, I’ve looked for metaphors to explain the difference between traditional marketing and internet marketing. So far, this is the best one I have: traditional marketing is creationist; internet marketing is Darwinian.

Here’s a typical traditional marketing campaign:

• An overall strategy is chosen among many possible strategies
• Following this strategy, time-bound campaigns are crafted and executed
• Within these campaigns, you have certain creative outputs like ads whose imagery and copy follow the strategy and brand identity

In other words, traditional marketing is Creationist. A grand design is created based on a deep understanding of the customer and the product. This design is executed through its creative outputs.

On the other hand, internet marketing is Darwinian. More than a time-bound, heavily-planned campaign, internet marketing is all about creating a stronger and stronger marketing ecosystem through design, testing and optimization.

In the web, you cannot settle with one choice; you have to try out several options for each of the following aspects:

• The general kind of internet marketing (see the 3 kinds of web marketing)
• Traffic acquisition strategies
• Traffic conversion strategies
• Specific targeting options
• Specific ad copy and imagery
• Specific landing page and website designs

You measure the effectiveness of each (eg, based on cost per conversion). You choose the best performing and kill off the worst. You try new options based on what you learned. You measure and choose again. It’s survival of the fittest. It’s evolution towards a stronger and stronger marketing ecosystem.

(If we are to turn the tables and let Darwin explain evolution using web marketing language, we could imaging him saying, “Evolution is simply an algorithmic process for specie optimization, where the algorithm is ‘only the fittest survive.’”)