Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

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Talented managers lead successful brands… The company is its own product, owned and managed by the right person with the right culture.”

It was both insightful and humorous. “The advertisements which bees find useful are flowers – and if you think about it, a flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget.” And the forthright honesty of a Porsche ad was a bit crude but quite attention getting, before, as the author noted, “...I imagine the Porsche dealership stripped it of its franchise.” The word "Alchemy" in the book title is more of a metaphor of saying "magic", like how the alchemists in the old days intended to turn low cheap metal (lead) into great metal (gold). Although the alchemists failed to do so in chemistry, the author believes we can still make alchemy happens in other areas (eg: business, policy making, human interactions etc) by using very cheap techniques but making great products/services.You can never be fired for being logical. If your reasoning is sound and unimaginative, even if you fail, it is unlikely you will take much blame. It is much easier to be fired for being illogical than unimaginative. Compared to Brits, Americans mostly speak the same language, but tend to interpret it more literally.

Rory Sutherland asks why patients in an accident and emergency ward prefer to go into a new waiting room after seeing the triage nurse rather than return to the waiting room they initially entered. He concludes that they like the feeling of moving along a process and that hospitals would do well to note that patients ‘care about how they are treated just as much as they care about how they are treated’. Promoting a more balanced diet of transport optionsbreaks free of 'fast food' thinking. People should be free to travel in healthier and more sustainable ways, overcoming the default to drive. By thinking in terms of user capability, opportunity and motivation to travel (and sometimes not-need-travel) we can (re)build more inclusive and resilient transport systems. The regular practice of religion also encourages such beneficial effects on mental health as less depression, higher self-esteem and greater family and marital happiness. Unfortunately there is a lot of chaff, and most of it is shed by the massive Worzel Gummidge army of strawmen the author assembles to support his arguments.

Psychophysics is the study of the neurobiology of perception and how what we see, hear, taste and feel differs from ‘objective’ reality. It explains how TV screens are able to show us a full range of colours even though they are only capable of producing blue, green and red photons. It explains why we think the Parthenon has straight columns when closer inspection will reveal that it doesn’t. Loss of power and control can create far stronger feelings of annoyance than loss of punctuality. However we cannot distinguish between the two causes, and are more likely to say "I'm angry cuz my bloody plane's late" rather than "I'm angry because inadequate information has left me powerless".

The author successfully proved that conventional logic and wisdom fails more than what people think through many real life examples in the book. The central message of the book is that "No one knows anything!". Even Physicists who are Nobel Laureates managed to invent/proved their work through a large element of serendipity and accidents. One problem (among many) of Soviet-style command economies is that they only work if people know what they want and need, and can define and express that preference adequately. But that is impossible, because not only do people not know what they want, they don't even know why they like the things they buy. If there were a logical answer, we would have found it by now.” — Rory Sutherland 8. Make it personal Predator thinks if something is so brightly coloured, survived without concealment and need not camouflage must be having some strategy hence best avoided.

The economy is not a machine. It is a highly complex system. Machines don't allow for magic, complex systems do. Defensive decision-making: not to maximise overall welfare, but minimise damage to the decision maker in event of a negative outcome. Despite approaching Microsoft with the idea of a system whereby people could share Office documents over the nascent internet and being roundly rejected, Rory went on to help found OgilvyOne, the group’s dedicated digital and direct agency. He remains an advocate of so-called ‘360 Degree Branding’ ensuring brands have a coherent, joined-up presence in all relevant media areas. Rory was appointed Head of Copy, and shortly afterwards Creative Director of Ogilvy. He has also served as the president of the Institute of Practioners in Advertising (IPA) - the first ‘creative’ to do so. Ogilvy is now part of the massive WPP ad and media group and count Ford, Unilever, IBM, American Express, BP, and British Airways amongst their top accounts. A really thought-provoking book that makes a powerful case for why we should realise that the emotional and psychological aspects of why we do the things we do should be treated with as much seriousness as the logical aspects. The old advertising belief in having a unique selling proposition also exploits the focusing illusion. Products are easier to sell if they offer one quality that others do not. Even if this feature is slightly gratuitous, by highlighting a unique attribute, you amplify the sense of loss a buyer might feel if they buy a competing product.

Another way to attribute value is to massage the semantics of a product, situation, activity. His example, "downsizing" as a voluntary move from a no longer needed larger home into a smaller one can be perceived (or communicated) as a decision of preference rather than a settlement of financial need. Sutherland says, Create a name, and you've created a norm. People are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety– and many other factors that engineering equations don’t capture at all. Delightful read. Breezy and irreverent. The author talks about scenarios where a purely "logical" approach can lead to worse outcomes for business. Find one or two things your boss is rubbish at and be quite good at them". Complementary talent is far more valuable than conformist talent.

Habit, which can often appear irrational, is perfectly sensible if your purpose is to avoid unpleasant surprises. Like classic behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, Sutherland peels away hidden, often irrational human behaviors that explain how the world around us functions. In How to Be an Alchemist he examines why certain ads work and the broader truths they tell us about who we are. Why do people prefer stripy toothpaste, and how might that help us design retirement plans that young people would actually buy? Why do we think orange juice is healthy, and how does the same principle guide our feelings about nuclear reactors? Why do budget airlines advertise services they don’t offer—and what might insurance companies learn from them about keeping healthcare costs low? The regular practice of religion helps poor people move out of poverty. Regular church attendance, for example, is particularly instrumental in helping young people escape the poverty of inner-city life. Concentrate on what you can deliver to each person, not the group. By selling one at a time, you can deliver more than by selling ten at a time… Every relationship is an individual one; every customer has different wants and needs; never forget that they all use your product or service in different ways.” 9. The luxury of care Morita hated the record button and was not first introduced in first Walkman by Sony. This would have confused the consumer for whom this product is primary. It’s not always a good idea to make everything versatile/multi-functional.