Marketing can often feel like one big game, and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to see why. There is everything you need to lead a competitive and in-depth game, strategy, actors, rewards, winners and losers. It can seem disheartening at times. However coming to terms with this and accepting it means you can begin to learn how to beat it.
Strategic decision making based on analysing how others play can mean maximising your level of success. This is the process of ‘game theory’. Game theory is mainly used in economics, politics and psychology as a way of anticipating the competitors’ behaviour.
Despite ‘game theory’ being generally thought of as an excellent tool it is not in common use in the current marketing practice. This is because many see game theory as nit being appropriate in the marketing sector due to the theory’s fairly rigid and factual nature, as opposed to the flexibility involved in marketing. The issue being that game theory analyses the behaviour or rational players, whose decisions can be predicted. On the other hand, marketing controls consumer behaviour which is usually fairly irrational and affected by many factors which can’t be predicted or quantified.
Game theory also doesn’t take into consideration the marketing department’s role in creating and protecting a brand image. The uncertainty of public opinion means that a decision that’s technically the most logical or rational might not actually be the best approach in terms of publicity. It’s therefore not reasonable to apply game theory in its entirety. It can still be used, however, as part of a wider marketing strategy, as a “mixed” approach.
The trick is to rationalise the consumers’ decisions as much as possible, leading them down a controlled path where their actions can be predicted and responded to in the most effective way possible. And in the notoriously competitive world of marketing, game theory might just be what’s needed to give you a competitive edge.
If you would like help in deciding the marketing theory for your company contact The Ideal Marketing Company for a free 1 hour meeting on 01858 374 170.
