Adithya Venkatesan
13 days ago
The laws of psychology in marketing
A short story from the book, Alchemy:
The advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, had a particular test for aspiring copywriters.
One of the questions was simple:
‘Here are two identical 25-cent coins. Sell me the one on the right.’
One successful candidate understood the idea of alchemy.
“I'll take the right-hand coin and dip it in a Marilyn Monroe bag”, he said.
“Then I'll sell you a genuine 25 coin as owned by Marilyn Monroe.”
In math, it is a rule that 2+2 = 4. In psychology, 2+2 can equal more or less than 4. It's up to you.
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.
Branding is alchemy. Whenever you work on a project/campaign, ask yourself, what’s the ‘alchemy’ here? In that endeavor, irrationality wins. Things that don’t scale triumph. And to be different, you need magic. ✌️
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Comments ( 2 )
manan dedhia
8 days ago
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is a ground breaking read on decision making and economic behavior of individuals.
Adithya Venkatesan
7 days ago
Have you read, 'The undoing project'?
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