MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The End of Averages for Marketing Budgets

In his 2015 book The End of Average, Todd Rose warns against “averagarians” designing systems based on the mean or judging success in terms of the deviation from the mean. He highlights Gilbert Daniels, an anti-averager hero, whose research in the 1950s led the U.S. Air Force to design planes with personalized cockpit features to suit pilots of all shapes and sizes rather than just the average male pilot — an innovation that dramatically increased safety records.

Marketing strategy also hinges on the principle of acting on differences. Think segmentation: Marketers tend not to design a product or service for the average consumer. Indeed, polarizing brands such as Red Bull pride themselves on the notion that as many people hate their product as love it.

About the Author

Nader Tavassoli is a professor of marketing and co-academic director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School. He is also the U.K. director of The CMO Survey. Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch Sr. Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is founder and director of The CMO Survey and former editor in chief of the Journal of Marketing.

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