Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

Product Information

It is only the behaviour that matters, not the reason for adopting it. Give people a reason and they may not supply the behaviour, but give them a behaviour and they'll have no problem supplying the reason themselves. Compared to Brits, Americans mostly speak the same language, but tend to interpret it more literally. He questions whether people use toothpaste for dental hygiene, or whether they really use it to maintain fresh breath – the reason why the vast majority of the toothpaste sold in the world is mint-flavoured. JP Morgan once said, ‘A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.’ Rory Sutherland extrapolates that huge social benefits can be garnered by appealing to people’s selfish instincts. The widespread adoption of soap hundreds of years ago fostered all the benefits of public hygiene and cleanliness but at the individual level it was adopted by people because it made them smell nice. By the same token concern about polar bears today may cut it for 10% of the population, but the majority want to see some personal upside from adopting more environmentally conscious behaviours. This article is based on the book “Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense” by Rory Sutherland. This book changed my way of thinking, and I would like to share 11 rules with you, which can help you make better decisions and life choices. (Note: This post is made as a summary and should not be used verbatim in any other context. If you want to use the ideas, please buy the original book) Talented managers lead successful brands… The company is its own product, owned and managed by the right person with the right culture.”

The regular practice of religion also encourages such beneficial effects on mental health as less depression, higher self-esteem and greater family and marital happiness. Economic theory is an insufficient way to identify value proposition - both in B2B and B2C scenarios. Loss avoidance and personal status gains are a much stronger motivators than prospects for economic gains Loss of power and control can create far stronger feelings of annoyance than loss of punctuality. However we cannot distinguish between the two causes, and are more likely to say "I'm angry cuz my bloody plane's late" rather than "I'm angry because inadequate information has left me powerless". Design is about having a go — trying something and seeing what happens. Planning is how to try — you plan for things to happen as they should, rather than designing to turn them into something else.” 5. Understand that branding is everything

Retailers:

Here's a good quote: "Behaviour comes first; attitude changes to keep up." That flies in the face of convention that attitudes drive behavior. Give people recycling bins and require them to separate...they probably become more environmentally aware. He says "Give people a reason and they may not supply the behaviour; but give people a behaviour and they'll have no problem supplying the reason themselves. Being slightly bonkers can be a good negotiating strategy: being rational means you are predictable, and being predictable makes you weak. The legendary advertising guru—Ogilvy UK’s vice chairman—and star of three massively popular TED Talks, blends the science of human behavior with his vast experience in the art of persuasion in this incomparable book that decodes successful branding and marketing in the vein of Freakonomics, Thinking Fast and Slow, and The Power of Habit.

In between, he explains why he is pro Trump (because the fact that his actions are impossible to predict makes him a good negotiator), why quotas for women are not useful (we just need to make STEM more attractive to women) and why racism isn't really about the colour of people's skin but about the strance accents of POCs. Its difficult to reply with “tap water” when you are being asked by waiter “Still or Sparking water?” The model of reason as evolved to defend decisions makes reason not the brain's science / R&D function, but the PR and legal department. Without a distinctive brand identity, there is no incentive to improve your product - and no way for customers to choose well, or to reward the best manufacturer. (brand equity, goodwill) More from the Introduction - and why I was wondering if I'd ever get out of it - Sutherland has a subsection of a subsection where he warns "Be careful before calling something nonsense." Ordinarily, ,that might be good advice, but he explains with an example of a "1996 survey on the place of religion in public life in America [he's British]" by the Heritage Institute that found 1. Churchgoers are more likely to be married, less likely to be divorced or single and more likely to manifest high levels of satisfaction in their marriage.

The way a question is phrased can influence the decision. For instance, if a waiter asks “Sparkling” or “Bottled” before serving you water at a restaurant, you’re unlikely to say “Tap” We don't value things, we value their meaning. What they are is determined by the laws of physics, but what they mean is determined by the laws of psychology. Despite approaching Microsoft with the idea of a system whereby people could share Office documents over the nascent internet and being roundly rejected, Rory went on to help found OgilvyOne, the group’s dedicated digital and direct agency. He remains an advocate of so-called ‘360 Degree Branding’ ensuring brands have a coherent, joined-up presence in all relevant media areas. Rory was appointed Head of Copy, and shortly afterwards Creative Director of Ogilvy. He has also served as the president of the Institute of Practioners in Advertising (IPA) - the first ‘creative’ to do so. Ogilvy is now part of the massive WPP ad and media group and count Ford, Unilever, IBM, American Express, BP, and British Airways amongst their top accounts. Rory Sutherland is the Vice-Chairman at media and ad company Ogilvy UK. Combining creative thinking with a passion for behavioural science he examines why people think, buy, vote or act the way they do, what influences them, and why they're so frequently irrational in their choices. Widely considered one of the leading real-world practictioners of behavioural science, he looks at what can be learned about the responses and reactions of employees, customers and the public and how that can guide the future of business and society.

Irrational people are much more powerful than rational people, because their threats are so much more convincing. This is a breakthrough book: Mother Reality makes sense in her own way. She yields her secrets to practitioners, almost never to academics - something psychologists, economists and non-skin in the game people, no matter what they say, are functionally unable to grasp. And the book is funny as hell: I smiled and laughed at every paragraph. Like classic behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, Sutherland peels away hidden, often irrational human behaviors that explain how the world around us functions. In How to Be an Alchemist he examines why certain ads work and the broader truths they tell us about who we are. Why do people prefer stripy toothpaste, and how might that help us design retirement plans that young people would actually buy? Why do we think orange juice is healthy, and how does the same principle guide our feelings about nuclear reactors? Why do budget airlines advertise services they don’t offer—and what might insurance companies learn from them about keeping healthcare costs low? Another way to attribute value is to massage the semantics of a product, situation, activity. His example, "downsizing" as a voluntary move from a no longer needed larger home into a smaller one can be perceived (or communicated) as a decision of preference rather than a settlement of financial need. Sutherland says, Create a name, and you've created a norm. Defensive decision-making: not to maximise overall welfare, but minimise damage to the decision maker in event of a negative outcome.People do not choose brand A over brand B because they think brand A is better, but because they are more certain it is good. (minimising variance) So...despite the raw beginning, and plenty of quibbling points, there are nuggets of value here. They just take work to find...which may quite be intentional, but I don't know. Stir things up, take risks, definitely question "we've always done it this way" (that's my reduction...he dances around similar concepts), always question anyway (mine again, but like art, it's what I took away. And I got another jumping off point, a book to find : Nassim Taleb's Antifragile. Find one or two things your boss is rubbish at and be quite good at them". Complementary talent is far more valuable than conformist talent. Major markets have banned/rejected vaping/e-cigarettes although its better replacement. Its difficult to get a man understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. – One problem (among many) of Soviet-style command economies is that they only work if people know what they want and need, and can define and express that preference adequately. But that is impossible, because not only do people not know what they want, they don't even know why they like the things they buy.

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.

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