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

21 Jul 2024 14 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Rory SutherlandLenny Rachitsky

Claim mix

evaluation 7preference 2observation 1commitment 1belief 1uncertainty 1prediction 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

14 published records

01 / observation

With electric cars, there's probably a very strong heuristic, which is every consumer's learned, whether it was computers or DVDs or cassette decks or fax machines or actually washing machines, but going back with anything electrical, it pays to wait because they get better very quickly and they get cheaper very quickly.

“With electric cars, there's probably a very strong heuristic, which is every consumer's learned, whether it was computers or DVDs or cassette decks or fax machines or actually washing machines, but going back with anything electrical, it pays to wait because they get better very quickly and they get cheaper very quickly.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

02 / commitment

I think there was some printing error and they thought, "Okay, we have these stupid yellow limos and we will send them to [inaudible 00:12:00] in England.

“I think there was some printing error and they thought, "Okay, we have these stupid yellow limos and we will send them to [inaudible 00:12:00] in England.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

03 / belief

Try and use those three things in parallel because I think what most businesses do is they try and do things in series and businesses borrow an awful lot from the Fordist Taylorist production line mentality of the process.

“Try and use those three things in parallel because I think what most businesses do is they try and do things in series and businesses borrow an awful lot from the Fordist Taylorist production line mentality of the process.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

04 / uncertainty

I have friends who bought the early flat screen televisions and they paid thousands and thousands of dollars for these things, and you go into their house, you go, "God, that's shit." So an awful lot of these things are instinctive intuition that we've just learned to experience, and we don't know what the future's going to bring, but actually it's what you might call decision-making based on a reasonable expectation of something.

“I have friends who bought the early flat screen televisions and they paid thousands and thousands of dollars for these things, and you go into their house, you go, "God, that's shit." So an awful lot of these things are instinctive intuition that we've just learned to experience, and we don't know what the future's going to bring, but actually it's what you might call decision-making based on a reasonable expectation of something.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

05 / prediction

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 where everything's linear and everything works in straight lines and everything's proportionate, and the opposite of a good idea is wrong, and the past is a fantastic guide to the future.

“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 where everything's linear and everything works in straight lines and everything's proportionate, and the opposite of a good idea is wrong, and the past is a fantastic guide to the future.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

06 / evaluation

Because in order to convey prestige, it's necessary for you to know that other people know that BMW is a prestigious car brand and so on and so forth.

“Because in order to convey prestige, it's necessary for you to know that other people know that BMW is a prestigious car brand and so on and so forth.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

07 / evaluation

In other words, there's a different mechanism for logic and decision-making within the evolved human brain, which is actually quite a lot more nuanced and more sophisticated than the mechanisms for decision-making that economists theorize because it has to account for imperfect information, it has to account for variance in outcome.

“In other words, there's a different mechanism for logic and decision-making within the evolved human brain, which is actually quite a lot more nuanced and more sophisticated than the mechanisms for decision-making that economists theorize because it has to account for imperfect information, it has to account for variance in outcome.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / evaluation

If I were to zoom out and try to describe what you encourage people to do, you basically are intent on convincing people to think less logically, to think less rationally, which I think is pretty counterintuitive to a lot of people, especially in business where they're told, "Be more rational, be more logical.

“If I were to zoom out and try to describe what you encourage people to do, you basically are intent on convincing people to think less logically, to think less rationally, which I think is pretty counterintuitive to a lot of people, especially in business where they're told, "Be more rational, be more logical.”
Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / evaluation

It's a pleasure. It's an audience I don't normally speak to and it's an audience which I think is particularly valuable, particularly important, but also actually probably could benefit quite a bit from just a little bit of extra psychology.

“It's a pleasure. It's an audience I don't normally speak to and it's an audience which I think is particularly valuable, particularly important, but also actually probably could benefit quite a bit from just a little bit of extra psychology.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / evaluation

Now, so first of all, marketing plays and timing and luck, by the way, let's also include those, these other factors play a much greater role in both the speed of adoption and the success of adoption of anything remotely new, innovative. But in hindsight, we forget the marketing and we never say, "Because of the great marketing, I bought that product.

“Now, so first of all, marketing plays and timing and luck, by the way, let's also include those, these other factors play a much greater role in both the speed of adoption and the success of adoption of anything remotely new, innovative. But in hindsight, we forget the marketing and we never say, "Because of the great marketing, I bought that product.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / evaluation

They're not linear. And that's the other thing, which is that because it's not linear, attempts to evaluate advertising on short-term transactional metrics will always grotesquely undervalue the contribution of that activity to your ultimate business success.

“They're not linear. And that's the other thing, which is that because it's not linear, attempts to evaluate advertising on short-term transactional metrics will always grotesquely undervalue the contribution of that activity to your ultimate business success.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / evaluation

For years, I don't know if this is still true because I don't drive many Rolls-Royces, but for years, Rolls-Royce was the last car, now obviously now cars dip their headlamps automatically, or you have an automatic setting, but for years, Rolls-Royces were the only cars which still had a pedal on the floor, perfect for an automatic, not so good for a manual, but they had a pedal on the floor where you dipped and undipped your headlamps rather than having a stop.

“For years, I don't know if this is still true because I don't drive many Rolls-Royces, but for years, Rolls-Royce was the last car, now obviously now cars dip their headlamps automatically, or you have an automatic setting, but for years, Rolls-Royces were the only cars which still had a pedal on the floor, perfect for an automatic, not so good for a manual, but they had a pedal on the floor where you dipped and undipped your headlamps rather than having a stop.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / preference

If I just had regular in eye updates, a heads-up display for shit that's going on in my life that just reminds me of stuff I'd easily pay, without having to look at a digital watch, which I've bought these bloody, both Android and Apple watches, and nah.

“If I just had regular in eye updates, a heads-up display for shit that's going on in my life that just reminds me of stuff I'd easily pay, without having to look at a digital watch, which I've bought these bloody, both Android and Apple watches, and nah.”
Speaker
Rory Sutherland
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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