to be brilliant, you have to be irrational why is red bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? We think We are rational creatures. Economics and business rely on the assumption that we make logical decisions based on evidence. But we arenas and we don’t. In many crucial areas of our lives, reason plays a vanishingly small part. Instead we are driven by unconscious desires, which is why placebos are so powerful. We are drawn to the beautiful, the extravagant and the absurd – from lavish wedding invitations to tiny bottles of the latest fragrance. So if you want to influence People choices you have to bypass reason. The best ideas don’t make rational sense: they make you feel more than they make you rethink. Rory Sutherland is the Ogilvy advertising legend whose ted Talks have been viewed nearly 7 million times. In his first book he blends cutting-edge behavioural Science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic, on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists.
Product Details
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: WH Allen (1 June 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0753556510
- ISBN-13: 978-0753556511
- Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2 x 21.6 cm
About the Author
Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and the founder of the behavioural science practice. He writes the Spectator’s ‘Wiki Man’ column, presents series for BBC Radio 4, serves on the advisory board of The Evolution Institute, and is former President of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising). The IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) awarded Sutherland an Honorary Life Fellowship. His TED talks have over 6.5 million views. He authored a collection of blog posts, interviews, tweets and reference materials, The Wiki-Man, in 2011. Alchemy will be published in 2019.
Review
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.
Furthermore, this is the first such treatise written by someone who had true contact with reality via something called a P/L.
And this is wonderfully applicable to about everything in life, from how to announce airplane delays to how to handle unsold opera tickets.
Buy two copies of this book in case one is stolen., Nassim Nicholas Taleb, scholar and former trader; author of the Incerto.
Revelatory and entertaining, The Sunday Times
Reading Alchemy was, as its title promised, the process of turning paper and print into gold. Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don't miss this book., Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence, Yes!, The Small BIG and Pre-suasion
Deeply original, Robert Trivers, evolutionary biologist and author of Deceit and Self-Deception
Sutherland’s book touches on many facets of life, but all come down to the importance of “psycho-logic”, or non-rational factors, in how we make decisions and how problems can be solved, CAMPAIGN magazine
