What on Earth Is Quantum Marketing?

As one of the most important parts of any business, marketing has always enjoyed an aesthetic word or two. Just look at the names attached to car models. Does anybody really know what a Qashqai is, a Sportage, Quattro, or a JUKE?

This fondness for a thesaurus is present behind the scenes too, with one of the more recent culprits taking the form of quantum marketing – and yes, it does relate to the branch of physics.

Very Tiny Things

The word “quantum” can be attached to just about anything to make it sound unique. There’s a Quantum Beverage Company, a Quantum Health, and a Quantum make-up business out there, none of which do anything sciencey.

Some online casino operators even have a Quantum version of online blackjack. This version of the venerable game adds win multipliers into the mix. Again, nothing too complicated. Quantum marketing actually promises a solution to low-quality campaigns using quantum mechanics, though.

Put simply, this theory describes the behavior of very tiny things at the smallest scales. A quantum refers to the smallest discrete unit of a physical property, often within the context of quantum mechanics. For instance, photons are the quanta of the electromagnetic field, which includes light.

As for quantum marketing, things never get quite so complicated. The basic idea is that, instead of targeting large groups all at once, i.e., demographics, quantum marketers would be able to single out smaller numbers of customers.

In theory, such a highly personalized experience would help cut through the noise of hundreds of daily adverts and account for any quirks in a person’s purchasing behavior.

Superposition

What does all that have to do with quantum theory? If we imagine that each proton or electron is a person, we may be able to predict their actions using science and, therefore, increase the chance that marketing materials reach them.

The impetus for quantum marketing is fear, more specifically, that buyers are so turned off by advertisements that they will go out of their way to avoid them.

It’s mostly still just a buzzword. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to state that the whole quantum marketing thing comes from the borrowing of a single word – superposition, the idea that something can be in several states at once.

In marketing terms, this could mean that a single campaign could be altered to appeal to whoever happens to be looking at it at the time – male or female, old or young, loyal or not.

On that latter descriptor, quantum marketing could try to harness customer fidelity as a way into their pockets. Loyal audiences rarely need advertising to, which means that ad-blockers are not a concern.

The worry is that products alone don’t create loyalty – experience does, which means that quantum marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum just like any other form of marketing.

World Quantum Day takes place on April 14th each year. While it has nothing to do with marketing, it can still serve as a timely reminder to refresh your campaigns.