A Socratic Approach to Marketing

Published on October 29, 2023

What if Socrates had been a marketer? Can the quality of the questions we ask determine the success of our marketing campaigns? In today's digital marketing landscape, we're often hypnotized by numbers—click-through rates, conversion percentages, social media metrics. It's all too easy to forget that behind every data point is a human being making a conscious decision. We are not just optimizing algorithms; we're influencing lives, shaping perceptions, and leaving an imprint on customer loyalty.

Along my journey into the domain of philosophy, the dialectic method of Socrates became more than a pit stop; it became a lens through which I could view the world. For Socrates, the dialectical method involved asking a series of questions to clarify a person's vague beliefs into a precise statement. In Plato’s "Gorgias," Socrates engages in the dialectic method with Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles to establish a precise definition of rhetoric. Willing to change their minds, Socrates and his comrades entered a dialogue full of questions and answers until they arrived at a definition of rhetoric that both parties agreed upon.

As marketers, let us imagine ourselves as Socrates, our audience as Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles, and the campaign as the topic of the dialogue. We are not merely pushing a message or promoting a product; we are building a space—a space where, as much as we have things to tell our audience, the audience has things to tell us. Viewing our campaigns fundamentally as this space for exchange, mutual learning, and refinement allows us to gain invaluable insights into consumer behaviour, preferences, and pain points. It enables us to craft campaigns that resonate on a deeper level, campaigns that not only achieve desired outcomes but also kindle brand loyalty and long-term brand-customer relationships.

At the core of the dialectical method is critical thinking, the disciplined art of questioning the obvious. It demands that we be open-minded, inquisitive, and analytical in our approach. In marketing, this translates to challenging the status quo and perpetually questioning the tried and true. When we are in the boardroom crafting an influencer marketing campaign, let's create space for the question, "What will happen if I don’t use an influencer marketing approach for this campaign?" This level of scrutiny allows us to cover any blind spots in our strategies, paving the way for not just short-term effectiveness but also sustainable alignment with our brand's core values. It consistently pushes us to look beyond surface-level metrics and delve into the deeper, more meaningful impact of our strategies, such as customer satisfaction and long-term profitability.