AND WHILE I AM HERE: there's a chapter on the placebo effect which says perfectly sensible things about exploiting the effect for everyone's benefit (eg why not colour aspirin red, because it feels more dramatic to take red pills) and then suggests that for the same reason we should encourage the use of homeopathy. That just sums this book up--Mr. Too Clever For Logic apparently can't see any difference between better marketing of an effective product and selling something as medicine when we know for a fact it doesn't work. There is a point where marketing becomes active dishonesty and this careers over it. Pete Dyson & Rory Sutherland present a bold, people-friendly approach to improving travel and transport. You might think that people instinctively want to make the best decision, but there is a stronger force that animates business decision-making: the desire to not get fired or blamed. The best insurance against blame is to use conventional logic in every decision. With characteristic wit and erudition Rory looks at the successes, the failures and the outright bizarre from the world ofadvertising and commuincations, and asks 'why?'. He analyses what branding means, what creativity is, and the value of persuasion over compulsion. In particular he looks at whyindividuals and groups, consumers and employees, often make the unexpected or 'wrong' decision, when that choice can be changed, or when it actually shows us the way to go.

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’.

Retailers:

Let’s start with where the author’s point of view comes from... this guy seems to be big fan of Nassim N Taleb and Daniel Kahneman. Well... this gives me an excuse to begin my review with a Quote from “Skin in the Game” by Nassim Taleb.. Two amounts one is prepared to spend in a store : "zero" or "a lot". Purchasing expensive treats or finding bargains both have a dopamine rush.

Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value -- and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.After a spell teaching at a grammar school (and finding his colleagues far more challenging than the pupils), Rory applied to a number of advertising and marketing agencies and was offered a planning role by Ogilvy & Mather. He was asked to leave the Planning Department and moved to the Creative Department instead as a junior copywriter. He worked on accounts including American Express, Royal Mail, and the relatively obscure software company Microsoft. Delightful read. Breezy and irreverent. The author talks about scenarios where a purely "logical" approach can lead to worse outcomes for business.

Complex plans are designed to compensate for small vision or low self-esteem… The world is chaotic and complex — don’t try to cram the infinite detail of the real world into one neat grid.” 4. Design your future In Part 2: An Alchemist's Tale (or Why Magic Really Still Exists), Sutherland shares one question on a test an ad agency used for prospective copywriters: Here are two identical 25 cent coins. Sell me the one on the right. One candidate answered he would take the coin, dip it in Marilyn Monroe's bag and then say, "I'll sell you a genuine 25-cent coin as owned by Marilyn Monroe." (I'm quoting. Perhaps "quarter" is an unfamiliar term?) The lesson? "We don't value things; we value their meaning." I remember my older sons wanting a Pokemon Charizard card in the early 1990s. It was "rare". Despite there being hundreds of thousands printed, there was a perception of rarity because so many more of the other cards were out there in the market. For them, there was value applied. Flower is just a weed with an advertising budget. A flower can be worth stopping at, worth going out of your way or destination in itself. Brands are just products with no price tag… People don’t buy images or messages; they buy better versions of themselves.” 6. Think like a designer It’s not just from trains that Sutherland finds examples of the curious ways in which humans operate. His razor-sharp sense of observation provides him with a rich source of anecdotes on which to draw. His collection rivals that of Richard Thaler who outlined a list, in his book Misbehaving, of things people do that are inconsistent with the economists’ model of rational choice.

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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. Rory Sutherland 2022-03-04T01:50:00.000Z Truly excellent book by @AlexHormozi , not least for its healthy coverage of B2B. Irrational people are much more powerful than rational people, because their threats are so much more convincing.

This book should come with a warning for its display of sexism and white, wealthy middle-aged eurocentric male views. If you can get past that, you might find some of the ideas interesting.

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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.