1min snip

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

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

notes

NOTE

Having a great brand means playing the game on easy mode

A strong brand allows a business to navigate capitalism with significant advantages, akin to playing on an easy mode. The quantification of this advantage is challenging since it is impossible to determine what the performance would have been without a strong brand presence. Additionally, the process of brand building is not linear; rather, it consists of interconnected and catalytic elements that contribute to success in ways that cannot be easily attributed to specific activities. This complexity means that evaluating advertising efforts through short-term transactional metrics often leads to a gross undervaluation of its true impact on overall business success.

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Transcript

Episode notes

Rory Sutherland is widely regarded as one of the most influential (and most entertaining) thinkers in marketing and behavioral science. He’s the vice chairman of Ogilvy UK, the author of Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, and the founder of Nudgestock, the world’s biggest festival of behavioral science and creativity. He champions thinking from first principles and using human psychology—what he calls “thinking psycho-logically”—over mere logic. In our conversation, we cover:

• Why good products don’t always succeed, and bad ones don’t necessarily fail

• Why less functionality can sometimes be more valuable

• The importance of fame in building successful brands

• The importance of timing in product success

• The concept of “most advanced, yet acceptable”

• Why metrics-driven workplaces can be demotivating

• Lots of real-world case studies

• Much more

Note: We encountered some technical difficulties that led to less than ideal video quality for this episode, but the lessons from this conversation made it impossible for me to not publish it anyway. Thanks for your understanding and for bearing with the less-than-ideal video quality.

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-most-people-miss-about-marketing

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Where to find Rory Sutherland:

• X: https://x.com/rorysutherland

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorysutherland

• Book: Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Curious-Science-Creating-Business/dp/006238841X