Rory Sutherland’s Post

“People need to stop trying to sell as efficiently as possible, and start trying to sell as effectively as possible” The words of Rory Sutherland. I speak a lot about the need for #CPG and #FMCG manufacturers to get good at creating demand again. My belief is that, over the last two decades, creating demand is an art form that has been lost in favour of creating ‘effeciencies’. But seriously, after almost two decades of price increases and volume decreases resulting in tepid growth or stagnation, when are we going to admit there are no more sizable efficiencies left to be had? When a strategy isn’t working it is not those that stick with it that succeed, it is those that pivot, pivot early and try a new approach. ‘Effeciencies are as efficient as they can efficiently get. Let’s create some demand again.’ How? Here is a place to start, as Rory said, start trying to sell effectively instead. (Potential) customers have needs, missions and journeys. Effective selling begins with understanding those needs missions and journeys, and then creating products, services, advertising, marketing, promotions and communications that speak directly to what you target audience is looking for, where they are looking for it. Added bonus, selling effectively is way more fun than selling efficiently. #digitalcommerce #ecommerce #creatingdemand #digital #efficiency #effectiveness #cpgindustry #fmcgindustry

Effectiveness over Efficiency. Transformation over incrementalism. To all those who say the utter rubbish of: “What gets measured gets managed..." Genius, really! Make sure you know the full quote: “What gets measured gets managed even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so.” Simon Caulkin summarising V F Ridgway’s paper ‘Dysfunctional Consequences of Performance Measurements’ in Administrative Science Quarterly 1956 Shame on you Accounting and Audit firms (e.g. KPMG, et al); Strategy Consultancies (e.g. McKinsey & Company, et al) and Finance folk. Our organisations would do better with: i) more Finance interns, and less Marketing interns; and ii) focusing on truly Creative, Insightful Contrarians. Any other suggestions welcome. Rory Sutherland Sir Kenneth Olisa Zaid Al-Qassab Dame Annette King DBE Neil Henderson

A - Authority. In any industry, perception is important! The reason we all strive to polish our credentials, update our titles and look our best, is because we need to position ourselves as the FITEST option. This is why your footprint needs to be as large as possible! There are ways to increase your Presence in an Industry, and make your peers respect you and also turn over a customer base that lines up round the corner: *Quality: It's the best way to acquire customers. No one can argue with Great quality. Simple. What tends to happen, is that when an organisation grows, the handle on quality becomes looser. Anyone worth Customer trust, is able to retain their quality over a prolonged period of time. If your customer trusts you, they will prefer your produce over any other alternative in the market. They will tell the village about you. They will defend your honor! *Longevity: How much time do you need to put into your work, to be able to reproduce a certain service continously and without fail? Go with consistent Story telling. What is the industry average? Film, for instance, is seeing certain companies hit 100 years, today. How come Netflix is mentioned in the same breath? Time is of essence, but compressed together, your output is able to position you- even disrupt! *Depth: Be known for excellence in One thing. Grow deeper and wider in the field. Collaborate and apply effort to aquire credible resources and assets. Imagine how quickly your brand gains when solving industry old problems for legacy businesses. Tie yourself through undeniable expertise to affiliates that are much stronger on the fronts you ought to be in, but are yet to solidify. Buy yourself the credibility through marketing, widely as well. Authority makes you visible. You can bank on Authority. It makes your brand stand-out, everytime! #branding #Authority

🌟 Entering the thrilling season of Entertainment Awards, with the Oscars looming on the horizon, and I can't help but marvel at the unsung heroes behind the scenes – the accountants. 💼 These financial maestros aren't just crunching numbers; they're the invisible thread stitching together the glamorous tapestry of the industry. 🎬 From ensuring lead actors bask in their well-deserved glory to making sure the extra catering company gets their due, accountants are the unsung guardians of financial equilibrium. 💰 It's not just about balancing the books; it's about being the financial lifeline that makes dreams come true. 🏠 Paying rents, mortgages, popping champagne corks, sizzling steaks – these are the tangible results of their meticulous work. 🥂✨ As the curtain rises on award night, spare a thought for these financial wizards who transform numbers into red-carpet moments. 👩💼💫 Their calculators are the wands that conjure up the magic behind the scenes. 🌈 So, here's a standing ovation for the accountants – the backstage magicians who turn Hollywood dreams into financial reality. 🎩💼 As we applaud the stars on stage, let's not forget those diligently working behind the scenes to ensure every contributor, big or small, gets their slice of the glittering pie. 🍰✨ #Oscars #AccountingMagic #BehindTheGlamour #EntertainmentAwards 🎭🏆

Come check out my latest post about what the story of Disney's "budget park era" can tell us about ourselves.

Up at my site now, an important lesson about how the great American entrepreneur Walt Disney focused on the desires of customers to create value: "Integrity Requires Perfection in Delivering What Customers Value." This is an excerpt from my book The Business of Walt Disney and the Nine Principles of His Success. https://lnkd.in/g6qG5g2x

SHOULD you keep going after your DREAM of working in the entertainment industry TODAY? Well, you know what’s easy? Giving up, blaming the state of the business, commiserating online with frustrated people in the same boat. You know what’s hard? Believing you’ll get work in a tough business, writing when you’re discouraged, finding peers who encourage each other to keep going. Does it seem hard out there right now? Absolutely. 100%. No question about it. But when was it easy? The odds have always been against creatives making a living doing what they love. Whether you’re a writer, actor, director, etc., there has always been intense competition, hidden and overt discrimination and a sense that Hollywood was an exclusive club that you couldn’t get into no matter how hard you tried. It’s not that different now. Yes, they are buying and producing less shows than a few years ago, but there were a heck of a lot less shows (and channels!) decades ago. And people still broke in and made a living. Letting it get you down is easy. But if you want to have a career as an artist, it’s going to be hard. Is it more confusing? More challenging? More competitive now? Maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve been working in the business for a long time and it was always all of those things. I will continue to believe that it comes down to those same three elements: Great scripts, cultivating contacts and getting lucky. What kept me going for years is that I would ask myself, “What if I gave up today and it was going to happen for me tomorrow?” I hope you’ll stick with it, if it’s right for you, and you’ll be one of the lucky ones. You won’t know if you stop trying.

The industry has always been fickle. That's the nature of the beast. Hang in there. Things will turnaround. It may not be the same as it was before but that's where adaptability comes in. Change doesn't have to mean the end of times, unless the volatility of it all no longer works for you which is very real. It's not for everyone. But sticking things out might mean finding creative ways to balance your interests, saving money when you make it, diversifying income streams, and prioritizing your wellbeing in order to sustain/continue pursuing a career in an ever evolving business. 

Graham Sweet I loved this too. It’s hard not to like a story like this - it’s designed to rally us agency folk, to rise up etc. a story perfectly pitched to our creative egos. Another reason or line of provocation to level at our dull aspiring clients. Ha ha Anyway made me wonder where and when such conversations can really take place. Overall yes in principle a CMO / CFO might agree on a creative ambition. But where can an assessment of dull take place that’s not retrospective of an ad, an execution? Is this only valuable to critique past work or set a new agenda - I’d wager no one sets out to create dull. As planners we’d hopefully not write a brief that got to that. But I suppose we do intentionally or otherwise. Can a dull assessment be made at a strategic phase, during concepting? I’m not sure. Finally, I love the provocation that there is a dull cost penalty, but an equally interesting flip could also be 'interesting costs less'...