Business Marketing: Art & Science

 Business Marketing: Art & Science


Business leader Kathy Kartalis has built a 30-year career at the footwear company Skechers. As Senior Vice President of Global Product, she oversees footwear and apparel design, product development and sourcing, and leads a staff of over 500 people world-wide.


Kathy Kartalis


 In a presentation where she spoke about her business experience, she described her work succinctly as a cycle of designing product, developing it, and selling it. It is in this cycle that the relationship between science and art can be appreciated through the lens of business marketing. Although marketing is largely dependent on creativity and expression, it is also highly dependent on data-driven insights.


Is Marketing Science or Art


Kartalis speaks to how both of these elements served crucial roles when Skechers was confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic. The science aspect of marketing was pivotal in collecting and analyzing consumer data to assess what timelines and strategies would be most effective in a COVID-19 reality. It guided decisions that were made concerning factory closures, campaign angles, as well as expanding online. The need for creative digital content and innovative designs amplified the demand for the artistic division of the Skechers team. Kartalis recounted her boss calling her at the beginning of the pandemic and saying that they needed to take advantage of sourcing face masks. 


Skechers Face Mask


She called on the team’s designer to make appealing prints so that Skechers could differentiate their product from the thousands of other sources available. Ultimately, it is evident that it was the effective collaboration between science and art that sustained the business throughout the pandemic. 


Works Cited


Brown, Stephen. (2001). Art or Science? Fifty Years of Marketing Debate. The Marketing 

Review. 2. 89-119. 10.1362/1469347012569454. 

Dowling, Grahame. (2011). The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing 

Managers. The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing Managers. 1-458. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199269617.001.0001. 

Hoffman, Alan & Gold, Natalia. (2017). Skechers USA, Inc.: “Big Bang Disruption” in the 

Footwear Industry. 10.4135/9781529755558. 

Kuncoro, Amin & Ristanto, Hesty & Suroso, Iwan & Elfaz, Maulanisa. (2022). Holistic 

marketing: Integrated marketing and relationship marketing impact to marketing performance. International journal of health sciences. 421-430. 10.53730/ijhs.v6nS4.5526. 

WUSTL ArtSci. “Fireside chat with Kathy Kartalis, AB '82, Senior Vice President of Global 

Product for Skechers.” YouTube, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-

RyfgWaqlzE


Images

Arts & Sciences. “The Power of Arts & Sciences Week.” Arts & Sciences, Arts 

& Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, 25 Jan. 2022, https://artsci.wustl.edu/power-arts-sciences-week.

“Skechers Multi Diamond S Face Mask Box of 50.” Skechers, Skechers USA, 2022, 

https://www.skechers.com/clothing-accessories/skechers-multi-diamond-s-face-mask-box-of-50/MA010WNN.html.  

Stradling, Jenny. “Is Marketing Science or Art? Why Answering This Question Matters in the 

Digital Age.” Eminent SEO, Eminent SEO, 20 May 2021, https://www.eminentseo.com/blog/is-marketing-science-or-art/. 


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