Marketing is like music. Both are based on Mathematics.

At first, this sounds odd. Music is supposed to be emotional. Marketing is supposed to be creative.

Marketing is all about understanding human behaviour, emotions, and what drives decisions. It's not just about showcasing a product; it's about tapping into your audience's desires, needs, and mindset and building a connection with them in much the same way as a favourite song, a ballad, or a tune does.

Mathematics feels technical. Rational. Uninspiring. And yet, beneath every song that gives you chills and every campaign that actually works, there is structure.

Timing. Repetition. Pattern. Ratio.

In other words: maths. Not in the classroom sense. In the sense that both music and marketing rely on systems that shape how humans perceive, process, and respond.

The magic is not the absence of structure; it’s what you do inside it.

Rhythm is attention management. Music without rhythm is noise. Marketing without rhythm is clutter. Rhythm is what tells you when to lean in and when to breathe. In music, rhythm is tempo and timing. In marketing, rhythm is frequency and cadence.

Post too rarely, and people forget you. Post too often, and people mute you.

Email too little, and you are invisible. Email too much and you are spam.

There is no universal perfect tempo. But there is always a wrong one.

High-performing brands find a cadence that their audience can live with, then stay consistent enough to become familiar.

Familiarity builds trust. Trust precedes action. That is not art. That is math. Melody is your message

In music, melody is what people remember. In marketing, messaging plays the same role.

You can have flawless production, beautiful visuals, and expensive placements. If the message is unclear, nothing sticks.

Great melodies are simple. Great messages are simple.

Not simplistic. Simple.

They express one main idea in a way that can be repeated, recognised, and recalled. When brands try to say ten things at once, they end up being remembered for none. The mathematics of memory is brutal:

Clarity beats complexity. Every time.

Harmony is channel alignment

Harmony happens when different notes work together instead of competing.

Marketing harmony happens when channels reinforce each other instead of behaving like separate worlds.

Your website says one thing. Your social content says differently.
Your sales team says something else entirely.

That is not multi-channel. That is dissonance. Dissonance creates friction. Friction kills conversion.

When message, tone, and promise align across touchpoints, the experience feels coherent. When it feels coherent, people feel safer. When they feel safer, they move forward.

Again, not poetic. Mathematical.

Repetition creates recognition

Most brands get bored with their message long before their audience does.  So they change it.

New tagline.
New positioning.
New narrative.

Meanwhile, the audience was just starting to recognise the old one. In music, repetition is not laziness. It is how motifs become hooks.

In marketing, repetition is not stagnation.
It is how meaning compounds.

Recognition is built through exposure × consistency. Break either variable and recognition collapses.

Tension and release drive action. Good songs build tension, then release it. So do good campaigns.

Tension = naming a real problem.
Release = offering a believable solution.

If your marketing only celebrates the solution, it feels generic. If it only dramatises the problem, it feels manipulative. The balance matters. When tension and release are in proportion, people lean in. That proportion is a design choice.

A strategic one.

Why creativity still matters

If both fields run on structure, where does creativity live? Inside the structure. Two musicians can use the same scale and create completely different songs. Two brands can use the same funnel and produce radically different results. Creativity is not chaos. Creativity is choice.

Which note to play. Which word to use? Which idea to emphasise? At what moment to stay silent? The math gives you the frame. Creativity decides what fills it.

The uncomfortable conclusion

If your marketing is not working, it is rarely because you “lack creativity.”

It is usually because:

• The rhythm is wrong

• The message is muddy

• The channels are out of sync

• The repetition is inconsistent

• The tension–release balance is off

These are solvable problems. Not with inspiration. With structure.

Final thought

Music moves people because it balances emotion with order.

Marketing works for the same reason. Ignore the math, and you get noise. Focus only on the math, and you get something technically correct but emotionally empty.

The brands that win understand both. They respect the structure. And they know exactly when to break it.

About the Author

Steve Gardiner (exec MBA) is a senior marketing and commercial leader at Lighthouse PR, bringing global experience from Accenture, Electronic Arts, Virgin Media, Telekom, and Etisalat. As VP Business at Etisalat, he was responsible for $1.8B in revenue.

Today, Steve applies his strategic, marketing, and growth expertise to support Lighthouse PR clients as part of the agency’s service offering.