Occam's Razor Cuts Through Marketing

Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving off," those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae ("law of parsimony" or "law of succinctness").

This is often paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

Now apply that to marketing complex products.

Roger Dooley reviews the research in this area on the Marketing and Strategy Innovation blog, and applies it to the purchase HDTV sets. Think about the complexity involved here. Evolving technologies, evolving features, a multitude of feature variables -- how can anyone begin to construct an internal conjoint analysis about what to buy.

As for me, I use CNET. Not necessarily the best source, but it helps. The same for my Ipod. I use ilounge.

The internet is a great resource for getting advice and direction. Mossberg does this for readers of the Wall Street Journal and Wildstrom does it at Business Week.

But this need goes begging everyday for marketers. The challenge is to distill down what consumers really want out of your product and get it into your advertising brief.