Marketing automation and the scope of marketers' heuristics

Abstract

PurposeThis paper examines the relationship between marketing automation emergence and the marketers' use of heuristics in their decision-making processes. Heuristics play a role for the integration of human decision-making models and automation in augmentation processes, particularly in marketing where automation is widespread.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes qualitative data about the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics in decision-making models, and it is based on evidence collected from interviews with twenty-two experienced marketers.FindingsMarketers make extensive use of heuristics to manage their tasks. While the adoption of new automatic marketing tools modify the task environment and field of use of traditional decision-making models, the adoption of heuristics rules with a different scope is essential to defining inputs, interpreting/evaluating outputs and control the marketing automation system.Originality/valueThe paper makes a contribution to research on the relationship between marketing automation and decision-making models. In particular, it proposes the results of in-depth interviews with senior decision makers to assess the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics as decision-making models adopted by marketers.

Simon’s scissors: meta-heuristics for decision-makers

“…Finally, the telling of narratives itself may lead to new heuristics. For instance, to identify heuristics adopted in specific business-contexts, “tales from the field” can be used (Guercini, 2019, p. 119; see also Guercini 2023b), and our writing of this paper shaped – through writing-heuristics (e.g. take-the-last) – our ideas on meta-heuristics.…”

“…Literature analyses reflect that rift, too: For instance, Hodgkinson et al (2023) document increases in publications on "top managers' heuristics and cognitive biases" (p. 1062; Italics added; capitalized and in bold in original), whereas Loock and Hinnen (2015) review neo-Simonian adaptive heuristics. Diverse usages of the term 'heuristics' have also been examined in other business-contexts, for example in marketing (Guercini, 2023a(Guercini, , 2023bGuercini and Freeman, 2023), international management (Guercini and Milanesi, 2020), customer-supplier relationships (Guercini et al, 2015), and operations management (Katsikopoulos, 2023). Finally, not all heuristics are even called 'heuristics' in the first place.…”