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Alchemy EXPORT Paperback – May 9, 2019

by Rory Sutherland (Author)

1,915 ratings

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‘A breakthrough book. Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell.’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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 aren’t, 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’s choices you have to bypass reason. The best ideas don’t make rational sense: they make you feel more than they make you think.

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. The big problems we face every day, whether as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by letting go of logic and embracing the irrational.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ WH Allen
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 9, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0753556510
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0753556511
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.79 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,417,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Rory Sutherland

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Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, where he has worked since 1988. This attractively vague job title has allowed him to form a behavioural science practice within the agency whose job is to uncover the hidden business and social possibilities which emerge when you apply creative minds to the latest thinking in psychology and behavioural science.

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Customers find the book to be a delightful read and appreciate its informative content, with one review noting how complex concepts become more accessible through the author's approach. Moreover, the book's wit receives positive feedback, with one customer highlighting how the author blends humor and insight throughout the text.

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Customers find the book delightful to read and consider it a true gem.

"...But he also blends these with humour and wit that makes it so entertaining, offering a fresh perspective on the art of persuasion and the power of..." Read more

"Love the book" Read more

"For an ad man like myself it’s a revelation. And a delightful read. Sutherland is brilliant and witty." Read more

"Excellent read!" Read more

3 customers mention "Insight"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights, finding it informative and thought-provoking, with one customer noting how complex concepts become more accessible.

"...Rory's style never fails to crack me up while delivering wisdom in every sentence" Read more

"...Through his personal and often shrewd anecdotes, historical examples, and cutting-edge research, he creates a chronicle that feels both informative..." Read more

"Hilarious and very informative..." Read more

3 customers mention "Wit"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's wit, with one noting how it blends humor and ideas, while another describes it as a brilliant and spellbinding masterpiece.

"...But he also blends these with humour and wit that makes it so entertaining, offering a fresh perspective on the art of persuasion and the power of..." Read more

"...And a delightful read. Sutherland is brilliant and witty." Read more

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Swathi
Worth giving it a shot !
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2025
Verified Purchase

Book looks great yet to give it a go. Jus popped in my mailbox without any fuss. Might update once i read it, the title intrigued me.

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Genny Dan
A must have for modern day alchemists in marketing
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2025
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Item was delivered quickly and arrived very fast. Just started reading and already loving it. Rory's style never fails to crack me up while delivering wisdom in every sentence

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Kellie Lao
Book for marketers
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2025
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Good for marketers early in their career.

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Brian LaRocca
Not Making Sense Makes Sense
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2019
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
A refutation of the calculating, rational model economists view the world in, Rory Sutherland's book is a paean to the seemingly illogical choices consumers make. While not the first examination of heuristics or behavioral economics, this is certainly an interesting ride. Marketing exists because it is effective or as the author puts it "a flower is a weed with an advertising budget."

Some "illogical" topics discussed:
A) New creations are often the work of weird consumers. The sandwich was conceived for a compulsive gambler too lazy to get up.
B) Buying the more expensive of two options is not irrational; it may just be "second-order intelligence applied to an uncertain world."
C) Brands provide a useful indicator of quality (ie "which is the best hoverboard to buy?"). As Sutherland notes, "people don’t buy brand A over brand B because they think a is better, but because they are more certain that it is good." He also introduces Herbert Simon's term "satisficing" (satisfy + suffice) to explain consumption decisions.
D) Sometimes offering fewer items is better. The Walkman removed the record button from its initial launch to make it easier to understand.
E) Reframing a product can create consumer surplus. A potato can be transformed to a luxury good if it starts to be grown in the royal garden.
F) Packaging can make a product taste better. Saying you will modify a recipe changes peoples perception of flavor.

Some interesting examples he cites:
- Red Bull, which is relatively expensive and tastes bad, provides a convincing placebo effect
- The stripe in striped toothpaste reminds you there are additional ingredients cleaning your teeth
- Soap smells like it makes you clean
- The "$300mm button" which lets you check out as a guest on websites (even though 90% of people then create an account)
- More is spent on female beauty than on female education

While a lot of this has been known by marketers for awhile, the author is concerned the problem of model reliance is worsening. First off, in the world of big data, data only comes from the past or as he puts it, "perception may map neatly on to behavior, but reality does not map neatly onto perception." And while big data gives us more needles, it gives us a lot more hay. In fact, Proctor and Gamble cut $150mm of their digital advertising budget because they felt microtargeting was ineffective. Similarly, the narrative that efficiency will dominate also comes into question. The well coined term "doorman fallacy" (automatic doors did not replace doormen) shows that there are lot more reasons things are the way they are than the direct explanation.

A lot of ancient cultures have a god devoted to fortune because they knew a lot of the world was governed outside of rational agency. By the end, you will start devoting more time to "alchemy" by questioning everything.

Some great quotes he cites:
Caribbean Saying: Trust grows at the speed of a coconut tree and falls at the speed of a coconut
Ogilvy: People don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say
Keynes: Better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally
Lennon: Time spent doing nothing is rarely wasted
Keynes It’s better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong
Shakespeare: There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

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25 people found this helpful

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Aki Kalliatakis
What fantastic and brilliant insights into marketing!
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2023
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Brilliantly written this book is an enthralling and spellbinding masterpiece that will leave you with a sense of wonder and completely new perspective in the world of marketing and customers. From page 1, I was captivated by Sutherland's enchanting storytelling and delightful thought-provoking insights. But he also blends these with humour and wit that makes it so entertaining, offering a fresh perspective on the art of persuasion and the power of human perception.

Through his personal and often shrewd anecdotes, historical examples, and cutting-edge research, he creates a chronicle that feels both informative and deeply human. Through his astute observations, he challenges readers to question their assumptions and explore the untapped and hidden magic that surrounds us in everyday life. We can potentially change the world around us for the better. How? By looking beyond the obvious, embracing ambiguity, and finding imaginative and inspired innovative solutions to age-old problems.

Most of his work is based on solid theoretical research, but what truly sets Alchemy apart is Sutherland's ability to impeccably blend interdisciplinary insights into a coherent narrative. He has obviously mastered many diverse intellectual fields: psychology, economics, anthropology, and history, and effortlessly connects dots that have long eluded marketers, exposing the underlying patterns and forces that shape our choices and behaviours.

Thus, complex concepts become more accessible and engaging, and he has persuaded me that advertising is not a waste of money, but one of the most intriguing and innovative parts of any business.
In conclusion, this book is a true gem.

I'm 66 and have more than 2000 books in my business library. If you asked me for the top 10, Rory Sutherland's book would unhesitatingly go into that pile, together with Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Seth Godin, Bob Cialdini and Philip Kotler. It invites you to question, experiment, and embrace the art of dealing with customers, and guides the reader through an enthralling exploration of the human mind, disclosing the magic of innovation and creativity. An absolute must-read!

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12 people found this helpful

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Ina Shum
Love the book
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2024
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Love the book

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Jay P. Francis
Oh my goodness did I hate this book
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021
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I took advantage of Amazon's return policy. It arrived. I settled back to read. Got angry about his first irrational Red Bull / Coke story And the subsequent chapters got more and more annoying. Opinions, with nothing to back them up. It's just him, an advertiser, rambling about advertising tricks and gimmicks, and putting a cloak of expertise around his cosmic generalizations. I don't think I've ever returned a book purchased on Amazon before. By his premises, exactly what we saw evolve over the past several years with QAnon, the toxicity of Fox News/OAN/Newsmax, Tucker Carlson, the extreme right and the Republican Party, is exactly what he argues for when he argues for ignoring logic, critical thinking, and the scientific method, and looking for the “magic”.

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12 people found this helpful

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Verena Lunkenheimer
Hilarious and very informative
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2022
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I gave this book to several people as a gift.

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Beltran
Increíble
Reviewed in Spain on November 10, 2023
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Me leí el libro en un fin de semana, esta muy bien escrito y las historias que cuenta son una maravilla. Recomendable a cualquiera que le guste el marketing

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Anil Panda
Simply Brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2025
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Thanks for writing this book.

A am from tech background and all of my life I have looked at solving problems logically. There are many times I have wondered about the limitation of logic . Recently, I have started focusing on marketing and I found again and again that logic has little room here.

This book has offered a paradigm shift in my thinking .

Thanks a lot Rory Sutherland for writing this wonderful book.

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Anantha Narayan
Fascinating anecdotes and compelling arguments
Reviewed in India on July 7, 2020
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Rory Sutherland is the vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK and uses his vast experience and trove of interesting anecdotes to put together a book on how irrational thinking often works better, which is interesting even for a logical thinking reader such as me. Right at the outset, Sutherland lists downs his 11 rules of alchemy. These are basically all variations of each other and Rule #6 encapsulates the direction that the book will take: The problem with logic is that it kills off magic.

Sutherland's basic premise is that rational analysis is based on big data that comes from the past and cannot account for an unexpected event. Which is why irrational thinking creates alchemy. Also, humans do not behave rationally all the time. Why else would perfectly sane people pay $5 for a drink that they can make for pennies at home (Starbucks) or why would a coarse uncomfortable fabric that takes ages to dry and popular with labourers become fashionable (jeans)? He gathers his argument in six well-structured sections and then follows that up with a seventh where he lays out his recommendations. While a large part of what he writes is related to the advertising or marketing fields in some way or the other, he has used examples from other areas as well to buttress his arguments.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the book are the various anecdotes strewn through it such as the one on Red Bull's success (it was expensive, came in a tiny can and had a disgusting taste as per consumer trials, all counterintuitive to a successful launch) or the story of striped toothpaste (it mixes in your mouth anyway but signals to the user that it fulfils two functions) or how mailer donation campaigns work better if the return envelope has the flap on the shorter side (as it seems more appropriate to slip a cheque in).

The book is not without its problems. In his desire to hammer down the key argument of the book, Sutherland makes it completely one-sided. In the process, he pooh-poohs economists and logical thinkers several times in the book which can be somewhat off-putting. Having said that, the breezy style of writing and some fascinating insights coupled with interesting stories make this a worthwhile read. The various footnotes in each chapter, by themselves, would make compelling reading!

Pros: Fascinating anecdotes, compelling arguments

Cons: The constant putting down of logic is somewhat off-putting

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Lukas
Really fun
Reviewed in Canada on October 31, 2024
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Surprisingly funny and adds a lot of new and interesting information.

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Lackshu Bala
Challenges conventional thinking
Reviewed in Australia on November 11, 2024
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Got the book after watching Rory's videos on YouTube. Amazing book. Wish I read it when I was younger. Good ideas and advice for dealing with the real world...especially in a business scenario. Makes you think twice when you think you're right or you go with commonly held beliefs.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Increíble

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Brilliant

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating anecdotes and compelling arguments

5.0 out of 5 stars Really fun

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenges conventional thinking

Increíble

Simply Brilliant

Fascinating anecdotes and compelling arguments

Really fun

Challenges conventional thinking