What most people miss about marketing | Rory Sutherland (Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, author)

Steve Jobs' success was rooted in his exceptional marketing and sales skills, not technological expertise. Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy UK and author of "Alchemy," emphasizes the crucial role of psychology in marketing, urging founders to think creatively and leverage human behavior. Sutherland shares insights on the importance of maintaining product distinctiveness, timing, and the psychological impact of brand building. He highlights the nonlinear nature of innovation and the necessity of integrating marketing with technological and economic strategies to achieve lasting success.

• Steve Jobs is highlighted not as a technologist but as an exceptional marketer.
• Effective marketing is often overlooked but is crucial for product success.
• Idiosyncrasies and unique features in products can significantly enhance their appeal.

"Steve Jobs was not a technologist he was a pitch man he was a brilliant salesman he was a fantastic marketer."

• Emphasizes Jobs' strength in marketing over technology.

"When products succeed we forget the extent to which marketing was actually instrumental or decisive in their success."

• Marketing plays a critical role in the success of products, often underestimated.

• Comedy can be a powerful tool in marketing.
• Products that can be the subject of a stand-up routine are likely to succeed.
• Seriousness in marketing may not always be the best approach.

"If you can imagine a stand-up comedian doing a routine about your product, then you're on to something."

• Products that can integrate humor are more likely to capture attention.

"The urge to appear serious is in many ways a disaster in marketing."

• Seriousness can hinder the appeal and relatability of a product.

• Unique product features can enhance consumer interest.
• Small, quirky elements can make a product memorable.
• Consistency in unique features can create a strong brand identity.

"You need to preserve slightly odd things."

• Unique features should be maintained to stand out.

"Idiosyncrasies kind of count double."

• Quirky elements are particularly memorable and valuable.

• Emphasis on psychological over logical thinking in marketing.
• Understanding consumer behavior and psychology is key.
• Nonlinear and complex thinking can lead to innovative solutions.

"Psychology is a branch of complexity Theory."

• Marketing benefits from understanding complex human behaviors.

"The opposite of a good idea can be another good idea."

• Multiple approaches can be successful, even if they seem contradictory.

• Products should be advanced but still acceptable to consumers.
• Evolutionary changes are more palatable than revolutionary changes.
• Familiarity combined with innovation creates consumer comfort.

"There is a pace of change which consumers will accept and generally they're more comfortable with Evolution than they are with complete reinvention."

• Gradual improvements are more easily accepted by consumers.

"Maximally advanced yet acceptable."

• Innovations should balance newness with familiarity.

• Jaguar's unique light switch and Rolls-Royce's headlamp pedal as examples.
• Verve Clicquot’s yellow label became a distinct and memorable feature.
• Friends and Family plan by MCI created interest through its unique structure.

"In the 1990s, you turned on the light above your head with a switch on the central console in a Jaguar."

• Unique features can become a brand's signature.

"Verve Cleo it's the one with a yellow label."

• Distinctive visual elements can become iconic.

• Real-world decisions are complex and often non-linear.
• Multiple correct answers can exist for a single problem.
• Information in real-life scenarios is often incomplete or irrelevant.

"What we're trying to do is we're trying to run the world of business entirely to a reductionist kind of maths and physics and finance model."

• Real-life decision-making is more complex than simplified models suggest.

"Multiple choice questions have a single right answer, but real life decisions aren't like that."

• Real-world problems often have multiple viable solutions.

• Consumer perception can significantly impact product success.
• Products that are too perfect may not be trusted.
• Sensory feedback, like noise in an electric razor, can influence perceived effectiveness.

"If you make it too quiet we genuinely won't believe it's working."

• Sensory cues can enhance the perceived functionality of a product.

"You can over optimize for things."

• Over-optimization can lead to mistrust or disbelief in the product’s effectiveness.

• Encouraging businesses to adopt creative and psychological approaches.
• Moving away from purely logical and reductionist thinking.
• Embracing complexity and human behavior in decision-making processes.

"I think understanding the fact that what we're trying to do is we're trying to run the world of business entirely to a reductionist kind of maths and physics and finance model."

• Advocates for a more holistic approach that includes psychological insights.

"The opposite of a good idea can be another good idea."

• Encourages considering multiple, even contradictory, solutions.

• Real-life business decisions often don't meet the criteria of scientific rigor.
• Human behavior and business decisions are complex and don't always have a single correct answer.
• The expectation of proportionality between input and effect is often unrealistic in business contexts.

"If you look at real life business decisions which involve human behavior, it's simply, you know, all those conditions that we are expected to look for in something when we call it scientific, none of those conditions are met."

• Real-life decisions lack the clear, proportional outcomes expected in scientific models.

• Some companies successfully implement creative, less hierarchical structures.
• Examples include Octopus Energy, Shopify, and AO (Appliances Online), which use small, autonomous teams to foster innovation and motivation.

"The way they operate is almost multicellular in that you have lots of small autonomous teams."

• Octopus Energy uses small, autonomous teams to manage utilities more effectively.

"Shopify, where their customer service teams are in groups of 10...modeled this on sports teams."

• Shopify uses small teams similar to sports teams to enhance motivation and efficiency.

"AO appliances online...treat the customer like you treat your grandmother."

• AO emphasizes customer service through simple, human-centric guidelines.

• Over-reliance on metrics can lead to distorted behavior and loss of autonomy.
• Metrics can be gamed or followed blindly, leading to demotivation.

"The metrics often get gamed or they lead to a complete distortion of behavior."

• Metrics can distort behavior and reduce job satisfaction.

"The loss of autonomy and judgment that betokens is deeply depressing."

• Lack of autonomy in metric-driven environments is demotivating.

• Companies like Zappos focus on solving customer problems without time constraints.
• Emphasizing human elements like ethics and fairness can enhance job satisfaction and customer service.

"He refused to make speed a measure in the call center; the call is as long as it needs to be to solve the problem."

• Zappos prioritizes problem resolution over call duration.

"The persistent cost-cutting has effectively destroyed much of the pleasure of the workplace."

• Continuous cost-cutting and lack of discretionary judgment harm workplace satisfaction.

• Human decision-making is more nuanced and sophisticated than purely logical models suggest.
• Evolution has equipped humans to make decisions under uncertainty, accounting for imperfect information and trust.

"There's a different kind of mechanism for logic and decision-making within the evolved human brain which is actually quite a lot more nuanced and more sophisticated."

• Human decision-making mechanisms are evolved to handle uncertainty and complexity.

"We've evolved to effectively operate in decision-making under uncertainty as Herbert Simon called it."

• Evolution has prepared humans to make decisions in uncertain environments.

• Irrational behavior can be strategically advantageous in certain contexts.
• Unpredictability can prevent others from taking advantage of you.

"There are certain circumstances in which the ability to behave irrationally is actually at the Meta level highly rational."

• Irrationality can be a rational strategy in complex, competitive environments.

"When a hair is being chased by a dog, it goes into this incredibly random pattern of movement."

• Random, unpredictable behavior can be a survival mechanism.

• Humans often rely on habits and social copying as low-cost, effective decision-making strategies.
• Social proof and copying behavior can influence the adoption of new technologies.

"We have two very strong inbuilt default modes in the human brain, one of which is habit, do what I've done before, and the other one is social copying, do what everybody else seems to be doing."

• Habit and social copying are fundamental decision-making strategies.

"The single thing that would persuade people to have more heat pumps is if three people on their street have a heat pump."

• Social proof is a powerful motivator for adopting new technologies.

• Successful marketing is often overlooked in the success of innovative products.
• The perception of innovation often ignores the crucial role of marketing and positioning.

"There aren't very many famous marketing campaigns to launch new Innovative products because when a product succeeds everybody forgets the fact that it was the marketing that was instrumental to its success."

• Marketing plays a crucial but often unrecognized role in the success of innovative products.

"We tend to look at Great products and go, you know, iPhone, okay, the Ford Model T, and we tend to go everything was a bit crap and then Henry Ford came along or Steve Jobs came along and they had this invention and everybody immediately saw that this was brilliant."

• The narrative of innovation often overlooks the importance of marketing and positioning.

• Early advertising efforts in the late 1990s were focused on persuading people to adopt dial-up internet.
• Adoption of mobile phones was driven by social pressure, making it a necessity even for those initially uninterested.
• Historical resistance to new technologies, such as smallpox vaccination and penicillin, parallels modern skepticism toward innovations.

"When we look back, we kind of Constantine a history and we go there was no internet and then Tim Berners-Lee came up with the web and everybody wanted the internet. No, 20 years."

• The narrative of instant adoption of the internet is misleading; it took substantial time and effort.

"Edward Jenner who basically came up with the cowpox as a vaccination against smallpox... huge opposition, unbelievable skepticism, massive suspicion."

• Historical examples like Jenner's smallpox vaccine show significant initial resistance to now widely accepted innovations.

• Marketing, timing, and luck play crucial roles in the adoption and success of new products.
• Steve Jobs is highlighted as an exemplary marketer who was pivotal to Apple's success despite not being a technologist.

"Steve Jobs was not a technologist; he was a pitch man. He was a brilliant salesman, a fantastic marketer."

• Jobs' marketing genius was essential to Apple's product success, demonstrating the importance of marketing over pure product quality.

"We forget the extent to which marketing was actually instrumental or decisive in that success."

• The success of many products is often attributed to their inherent quality, overlooking the critical role of marketing.

• Numerous innovative products failed due to poor marketing or bad timing, not because of their intrinsic lack of value.
• Examples include Google Glass, Japanese toilets, and the wine box, which were superior products but did not achieve widespread adoption.

"I still think it's barbaric... that the Western Hemisphere dry wipes. This is Medieval."

• The Japanese toilet, despite being superior in functionality, did not gain traction in Western markets.

"Google Glass... they launched a bit too soon... they only gave the bloody glasses to developers."

• Google Glass failed partly due to poor marketing strategies and timing, not because it was a bad product.

• The perception of early adopters as "weird" can hinder the broader adoption of innovative products.
• User imagery can significantly impact a product's success, as seen with electric cars and Google Glass.

"The first people to adopt innovative products tend to be slightly weird... weird people do not confer the reassurance of social norms."

• Early adopters' unconventional image can deter mainstream consumers from adopting new technologies.

"All the people who don't have electric cars see the people with electric cars and go, smug environmental tosser."

• Negative user imagery associated with electric cars has created a barrier to their wider acceptance.

• Changing consumer behavior involves overcoming significant psychological hurdles, even for products that offer clear benefits.
• Historical examples of resistance to mobile phones and online grocery shopping illustrate these challenges.

"There's this huge psychological hurdle to changing behavior or to getting people to adopt behavior which is slightly unusual."

• The difficulty in changing consumer habits is a major barrier to the adoption of new technologies.

"I mentioned to someone in the early 2000s that I actually ordered my groceries on the internet and they laughed in my face."

• Early resistance to online grocery shopping showcases the psychological barriers to adopting new behaviors.

• Decision-making benefits from considering both rational and emotional perspectives, akin to the ancient Persian practice of debating while sober and drunk.
• Creative and rational approaches should be balanced to foster innovation.

"The ancient Persians... debated everything twice, once while sober and once while drunk."

• Considering decisions from multiple perspectives can lead to more robust outcomes.

"Creative people have to present their ideas to rational people for approval... never happens the other way around."

• Innovation can be stifled when only rational perspectives are considered without creative input.

• Misjudging the market or miscommunicating product benefits can lead to the failure of otherwise excellent products.
• Examples include early electric cars by Ford and Edison, which failed due to poor user imagery.

"Ford and Edison collaborated on an early electric car... what killed it was user imagery."

• The early electric car failed not because of its technology but due to its association with being a "woman's car."

"If you get your marketing wrong or if you mistime your launch... you can take something which is intrinsically a brilliant product and it will fail to bite."

• Effective marketing and timing are crucial for the success of new products.

• Rich people often provide early stage funding for promising ideas before they reach maturity.
• Novelty seeking and status display are key motivators for early adopters.
• Evolutionary analogy: Birds evolved wings initially for sexual display before using them for propulsion.

"Birds evolved wings as sexual display plumage before they became large enough to function as a mode of propulsion."

• Early stage ideas often receive support from unconventional thinkers or "slightly TWY people."

"What actually provides the early stage funding for new promising ideas is quite often slightly TWY people like me."

• People in marketing are generally high in openness to experience and keen to stand out.
• Majority of the population prefers fitting in and are driven by habit and social norms.
• Marketers must remember they are outliers in terms of openness to new experiences.

"People in marketing are very high in openness to experience, very keen to stand out, very keen to be distinctive."

• Air fryers as an example of early adoption and evangelism creating a cult-like perception.

"I was an air fryer evangelist literally going back over 10 years 15 years ago. I was like the John the Baptist of air fryers."

• Less functionality can sometimes lead to a better product by reducing user confusion.
• Example: Sony Walkman initially did not include recording functionality to maintain focus on its core use.

"You don't want to double the functionality of the device; you want the device to have one function which it performs very well."

• McDonald's menu simplicity as an example of choice reduction enhancing user experience.

"It's partly about speed, it's partly about Simplicity, it's partly about supply chain but it's also about Choice reduction."

• Tesla’s choice architecture balances between offering variety and avoiding overwhelming the customer.

"Tesla's choice architecture is just the right amount of choice... two Interiors, two size of Wheels, five colors."

• Key advice for startups: Be consistent, be distinctive, and aim for fame.
• Fame fundamentally changes the rules and provides numerous advantages.

"Be consistent, be distinctive, and be famous."

• Fame makes it easier for companies to attract customers, employees, and partners.

"When you are not famous you have to find all your customers. Suddenly you reach this magical sort of escape velocity of Fame where people start coming to you."

• A great brand allows a company to play the game of capitalism on "easy mode."

"Having a great brand means you get to play the game of capitalism on easy mode."

• Fame and brand building have compounding effects over time, similar to a pension.
• Short-term metrics often undervalue the long-term contribution of brand building.

"Brand building is a bit like a pension... I go where did all this money come from?"

• Marketing activities are often four times more valuable than short-term metrics suggest.

"An awful lot of marketing activity is in reality four times as valuable as people think it is when they measure its short-term contribution."

• Successful products need to work psychologically, technologically, and economically.
• Innovation processes are non-linear and often require iterative adjustments.

"The Sweet Spot is it works psychologically, it works technologically, and it works economically."

• Marketing and innovation should be integrated rather than sequential processes.

"You can either work out what people want to find out a clever way to make it or you can work out what you can make and find a clever way to make people want it."

• Rory Sutherland’s book "Alchemy" and "Transport for Humans" are recommended.
• The importance of parallel work in marketing and technology for successful product development.

"Try and use those three things in parallel because I think what most businesses do is they try and do things in series."

• The non-linear nature of innovation and the importance of not leaving marketing to the last minute.

"Don't leave marketing to the last minute but equally well you know work in parallel as far as you can."

• Comprehensive study notes cover early-stage funding, marketing strategies, product design, branding, the value of fame, and the importance of integrating psychological, technological, and economic factors in product development.
• Rory Sutherland emphasizes the non-linear nature of innovation and the compounding value of brand building.