• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

We need more empiricists in marketing departments. Unfortunately, way too many folks in marketing think that being empirical just means looking at a bunch of data and insights. It does not -- that’s not even close. 

The word “empirical” means:

1. originating in or based on observation or experience.
2. relying on experience or observation alone, often without due regard for system and theory.
3. capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment.

As the definition reveals, empiricism is about making decisions based on observations and experience, not just theory or pure logic. Looking at data and data-driven insights can certainly be part of the process, but it is only the beginning.

In law school, you are taught a very specific way to make informed decisions on how to apply the law to a specific case. You start first with the issue, the core question you are being asked to resolve. You then determine the rule of law that should be applied to the case, frequently synthesizing rules that were applied in similar cases.

Next in the process is analysis: You determine how the facts of your case dictate application of the law. Finally, you draw a conclusion, arguing (or deciding) what the result should be based on the facts and the law.

I’m mentioning this not to teach you the legal case-study method, but to make the point that empirical decision-making is a highly structured process. Just digging into facts (data) and insights (analysis) doesn’t make one an empiricist.

Without a really logical and scientific process of observation and experiment, and a structured way to apply it, data and insights are just a grab bag of facts: Nothing more, nothing less.

And, unfortunately, good data and insights assembled badly can lead to bad decisions. I suspect that we’ve all read the 1954 book “How to Lie With Statistics."

I often run into folks in this business who claim to be “data junkies” because they love to pore over innumerable charts, graphs and spreadsheets. But when you interrogate them further, all too often you find they’re making decisions based on a particular theory they're already wedded to. They’re just looking for data and insights that support their theory. And, all too often, they reject observations and experiments that run counter to their theory.

They may be data junkies, but they are not empiricists. And the first without the second is not good for our industry.