Marketing

Most people think that marketing is more witchcraft than science and there are days when I find it hard to argue against that line of reasoning. Most days, however, I believe that any outcome can be predicted by an equation that takes into account a sufficient number of variables. In marketing you don’t have to be exact, close is good enough, marketing is more like horseshoes and grenades, and less like physics.
 When close is good enough simple is better, less variables are better and less assumptions are better.  When perfection is not required you can analyze empirical data and “fit” the equation to the data and thus use it predict the future.  Newton’s laws are a great example of this.  They work, good enough, without taking into account the coefficients of friction.  You don’t really need Maxwell’s equations unless you need perfection.