Marketing Engineering at BBDO

Abstract

Marketing applications were part of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) from its beginning in 1953; expectations were optimistic, although a separate College on Marketing was not formed as part of The Institute of Management Science (TIMS) until 1967. It has proven difficult to keep practitioners involved and to get research translated into practice. The BBDO advertising agency began using OR techniques in the 1960s and learned several lessons, such as that an in-house group was needed to build user trust and that models must support decision makers, not try to replace them. The area of new-product introduction was especially challenging and gave rise to our most successful result—the NEWS model. Its application for the introduction of Wrigley's Extra sugar-free gum exemplifies the use of a marketing model by a manufacturer. BBDO has also had success in the areas of established brand modeling and marketing resource allocation. Marketing engineering is a young discipline and can continue to make important contributions if it retains its relation to marketing practice.