The future is psychology, not technology.
Wow.
That is a statement.
Few think it.
Even less say it.
It's not logical, and that is the point.
According to Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland, there are better paths to creativity than rational thinking.
He suggests discarding logic and start asking more stupid questions.
In a 2019 Campaign article, Sutherland goes on a rant regarding the beauty of video conferencing over email.
You can read the interview here.
"I've had about 24 video conferences this week," he said. "It's fan-fucking-tastic."
"The extent to which you can do business with people really effectively once you make it socially acceptable to use this technology is, I think, genuinely the most exciting thing."
On one day, he said, he started with a call to Australia and finished the day with one to Peru.
"You realize how slow and ineffective email is," he points out. "If you went round the average office, there would be 20 people emailing for every one on a video conference, and that has to be a productivity disaster."
"There are these huge behavioral things, and they are clearly 100% psychological," he argued. Beyond the more obvious benefits of a first social meeting between business associates, "there patently is no economic reason why people aren't video conferencing."
I discovered Sutherland completely unplanned but planned via a podcast algorithm.
Though technology brought us together, his views on psychology have changed my thinking on communications for the better.
Sure, software is good for the repetitive, crunch data, mundane tasks that fill our lives. However, logical tech is often an epic failure regarding creativity and applying old ideas to new business solutions.
More from the Campaign article: "Technologists are obsessed with getting people to adopt the latest technologies, but as a marketer, you might say, we've got this thing where there have been psychological obstacles to adopting it."
Technologists and economists assume that most decision-making is driven by logic.
This is flawed.
Using logic to make a decision is called System 2 thinking.
However, most decision-making is driven by emotion.
This is called System 1 thinking.
Facts and numbers don't drive our decision-making.
Facts take a back seat to emotional responses.
Numbers with no context and color are no match for actual experiences.
Great communicators understand the power of ubiquitous and unconscious System 1 decision-making to sell products or shape ideas.
Sutherland stated: "Once you reach a basic level of wealth in society, most problems are actually problems of perception."
The role of a business is to create value by solving customer problems.
As I move through life, it is clear you don't always need to solve complex technical challenges with massive and costly technical solutions.
You must communicate with a customer to see things from a different, more indirect perspective.
Acknowledging the importance of perception will better position your brand and improve your communications.
Excellent communication secures attention, frames the narrative, attracts the right clients, and repels the wrong ones.
Communicators tap into aspiration.
If your wine is Piedmont, you're worldly.
If you have an iPhone, you're fashionable.
If you wear Sid Mashburn, you're cool.
If you read WM Brown Magazine, you are refined.
These examples are some highly functioning behavioral communications.
Consider this by Sutherland: "If you stand and stare out of the window on your own, you're an antisocial, friendless idiot. If you stand and stare out of the window on your own with a cigarette, you're a fucking philosopher.
Nike shoes are globally sourced, low-wage assembled, overpriced pieces of cotton and foam.
Throw Serena Williams on a Times Square billboard, and all of a sudden, when you purchase a pair of Nikes, you'll run faster, serve better, and attack the net flawlessly.
That is some highly functioning behavioral communication.
Buying a silk scarf from a farmers' market vendor, even if the quality and design are high, is less satisfying than walking into Hermes.
In Hermes, you engage a well-appointed salesperson where you'll pay a premium for a scarf because it's displayed in a well-lit, French-designed showroom and walk out of the store happily with a glorious orange box.
That is some highly functioning behavioral communication.
Walk into a convenience store.
When you see bulletproof glass, what do you think?
Walk into a hotel.
What do you think about seeing a doorman welcoming you into the lobby?
As Campaign reports, Sutherland's thinking touches on many facets of life.
Namely, the importance of "psycho-logic," or non-rational factors, in making decisions and solving problems.
Sutherland's point is fundamental to creative communications because "every good creative idea has some element of apparent illogicality."
Creative agencies play a vital role because, unlike most areas of business and government, creative agencies, according to Sutherland, provide "a safe space in which dissident and dissonant thinking can emerge" and "where you can make stupid suggestions and still get promoted."
"You're required to become quite trivial and frivolous."
If you need help being trivial and frivolous, Caracal is here to help.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.
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