Magazine: Mixed strategies to get satisfaction

‘Marketing and psychology’ was the title of the presentation László Mérő, professor of mathematics and psychology at ELTE in Budapest and Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, gave at the June meeting of the Trade Marketing Club.

László Mérő
professor of mathematics and psychology at
ELTE, Babes-Bolyai University

The event took place in Pesthidegkút, in the garden of Villa Rosa. He started out by saying: we need to decide wisely when to be dumb – a thought he borrowed from US philosopher Nicholas Taleb. Then Mr Mérő talked about the logic of various desires, and how good ideas are competing for money, so that they can be realised. On the other hand, money is also competing for good ideas, because this is also a path that leads to success.

The professor told: there are many examples in life that show that we are using mixed strategies in our lives. In this strategy both changing moods and intuition play a role. This is the way nature makes sure that a mixed strategy is realised optimally. He added that there is both stable balance and instability in life. The key is homeostasis: the ability to adapt to changing external and internal conditions. In his view one can feel successful if they adapt well to the structure of their own desires, and feel satisfied with what they have.

László Mérő also talked about how retail works. From a marketing perspective, if a strategy builds on the existing homeostasis of the majority, it is very likely to be successful. Changing the structure of desires and the ability to adapt to them is a riskier business. Actually he thinks that marketing has smaller power than generally attributed to it. The professor believes that we can reach the maximum with our goals if we do something that we are satisfied with. This means that one doesn’t need to bring the most out of each opportunity. He reckons that technology makes many things possible, but digitalisation won’t change everything fundamentally. //

_{Founders and organisers of Trade Marketing Klub (from left to right): Ildikó Havasiné
Kátai, Ágnes Csiby, Zsuzsanna Hermann}