RORY SUTHERLAND: THE POWER OF IDEAS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE

Morning!

I’m a horrific person to buy gifts for and my family regularly moan that they can’t think of anything to buy me.

So, last week I decided to make a list of books that I’ve been meaning to buy - as a way for family & friends to have easy gift ideas.

But after writing the list, I thought I might as well cross a few off it myself.

I started with Rory Sutherlands’ book “Alchemy”.

It’s been far from what I expected, but it gave me a new perspective on marketing that I think everyone should hear.

So here’s 5 lessons I’ve learned from Rory Sutherland - that every marketer should know:

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BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY

Let me start with a quick explainer of who Rory even is.

Rory’s official title is the Vice President of Ogilvy Group - the infamous advertising & marketing company founded by the David Ogilvy.

Ogilvy is widely regarded as the best advertiser of all-time and Rory began working with him in 1988.

Today, 35 years later, Rory has reached the top of the pecking order and has worked on marketing campaigns for any major brand you can think of.

American Express, Merill Lynch, IBM, Dove - you name the brand, Rory has probably worked with them.

But Rory’s skillset isn’t in being the best ad man in the world.

It’s his innate ability to investigate the things that “shouldn’t make sense,” yet work in advertising.

He’s easily one of the sharpest marketing minds alive and here are the 5 lessons he taught me:

Lesson 1: Perfect Isn’t Always Perfect

Red Bull at its core is a drink that:

• Doesn’t taste great

• Comes in a tiny can

• Is overpriced for what you get

You could literally buy a coke with less money and have a drink that tastes better and comes in a bigger can.

So how in the world is Red Bull a 16 billion euro company?

That’s because the bad taste and tiny cans help people perceive Red Bull as more of a medicinal drink than just a soda.

People drink Red Bull to give them energy.

The same as they take a painkiller to take away pain or take adderall to help them concentrate.

If Red Bull tasted amazing and came in huge cans it would completely lose that perception.

No one wants a healthy drink that tastes too good. They want it to taste okay… because that seems healthier.

Perfect doesn’t always mean perfect.

Lesson 2: No One Hates Delays, They Hate Not Knowing

When a plane, train, or any automobile is delayed there’s always an uproar from the disgruntled customers.

For years, transport companies have associated X with Y.

X (there’s a delay) = Y (People are angry)

While this is somewhat true, it is far from the root cause in most situations.

For example:

Let’s say you are in the airport waiting on a plane to Paris when you hear the following announcement over the tannoy…

“The plane to Paris has been delayed.”

You’d be angry… you’re missing a day of your holiday, you have to wait longer, the plane might be cancelled.

But if the announcement said…

“The plane to Paris has been delayed by 15 minutes.”

Well, no one cares.

It might even be a positive announcement for those who are late.

You see, no one actually cares too much about most delays. They care about the unknown that comes behind that delay.

Lesson 3: The Same Thing Said Differently, Is Very Different

We all love listening to music and we all have our favourite streaming platforms - I use Apple Music.

But as much as we all like music, there’s a limit to what I’d pay for it.

But the same cost can seem very different depending on how you position it.

For example, I pay £6/month for Apple Music.

That seems reasonable, but imagine two alternative offers…

OFFER 1: Apple Music: £72/year
OFFER 2: Apple Music: 2p/day

I’d bite your hand off to have Apple Music for 2p/day.

The irony is, that’s what I already pay.

Lesson 4: Humans Aren’t Logical

In the book, Rory brings up 2 marketing campaigns ran by a heating company that involved hosting a competition to get attention.

Competition 1

Prize = a free supply of heating for an entire year.
67,000 people entered the competition.

Competition 2

Prize = a cheap penguin night light.
360,000 people joined the competition.

Logically, it makes 0 sense that more people would want a worse prize.

Until you realise that more people will engage with a promotion for a cheap reward because they think less people will enter - so their chance of winning will be higher.

Lesson 5: There Is No “Right” Way

One of my favourite parts of the book is when Rory talks about rewriting a letter for (I think he said it was for) a credit card company.

When they approached him they’d been constantly adding new paragraphs to the letter and with each addition sign-ups was increasing.

Rory advised them that they should probably reduce the letter to just 7 lines to make the offer seem more simple.

So, Rory went away and wrote the short letter.

They then A/B tested the letters against each other.

The short letter worked, but the long letter did too…

Why?

The short letter worked because it made the offer seem simple.

But the long letter worked because it made the offer seem thorough.

Both worked.

 🌱 THE GREENHOUSE

Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:

• Buy Rory’s book - Alchemy on Amazon. (See here)

• Rory’s infamous Ted Talk - 1M views (See here)

• Rory’s favourite ads of all-time. (See here)

TL;DR

1. Perfect Isn’t Always Perfect - Sometimes imperfect creates the perfect perception.

2. No One Hates Delays, They Hate Not Knowing - Focus on the thing behind the thing.

3. The Same Thing Said Differently, Is Very Different - Say things in the way your customers want to hear them.

4. Humans Aren’t Logical - Use their irrationality to your advantage.

5. There Is No “Right” Way - So just find what works for you.

Rory Sutherlands marketing tips are far from traditional marketing tips. But that’s exactly how he markets - untraditionally.

I find it’s often best to learn from people who think very differently to you and Rory certainly is that for me.

Hope you enjoyed learning from him :)

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of Rory Sutherlands marketing lessons. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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