Magical Thinking in Marketing: Why the Cleverest Brands Don’t Always Do the Obvious

In most organisations, rational thinking is rewarded. We’re taught to optimise, streamline, reduce friction and justify decisions with data. That makes sense in operations, finance and logistics.

But as Rory Sutherland has long argued, marketing doesn’t work in quite the same way.

In advertising, the gold standard isn’t perfect logic.
It’s understanding how people actually think and feel.

And those two things are not the same.

Why Marketing Isn’t a Spreadsheet Problem

Marketing decisions are often framed around sensible questions:

• How can we make this faster?
• How can we make it cheaper?
• How can we remove steps?
• How can we explain this more clearly?

Yet many campaigns that answer these questions brilliantly still fail to change behaviour.

That’s because customers don’t experience brands rationally. They experience them emotionally, contextually and socially — often making decisions first and justifying them later.

Rory Sutherland calls this magical thinking: not fantasy, but the intelligent use of psychology to shift perception and behaviour. Much of what we think of as “magical thinking” is simply behavioural science in marketing — understanding the shortcuts, biases and emotional cues that shape how people make decisions in the real world.

A Simple Story That Explains Everything

One of Rory’s most memorable examples comes from Winston Churchill.

In 1952, during a formal dinner attended by senior figures, Churchill realised a guest had stolen a salt shaker. Accusing someone directly would have caused embarrassment and conflict. Ignoring it would reward bad behaviour.

So Churchill did something unexpected.

He picked up the pepper pot, approached the suspected guest and said:
“I think we’ve been spotted — we ought to put these back.”

Same problem. Completely different framing.

By positioning himself as a co-conspirator rather than an authority figure, he made it easy for the guest to do the right thing — without defensiveness or shame.

This is a perfect marketing lesson: how you frame a message matters more than the message itself.

Where Brands Get This Wrong

Many brands default to what feels “sensible” internally — but lands poorly externally.

• Endless emails about “new features” that customers don’t emotionally care about
• Price-led messaging that trains buyers to wait for discounts
• Overly detailed explanations that overwhelm rather than persuade

These strategies aren’t stupid. They’re just incomplete.

They assume customers behave like procurement teams. In reality, customers behave like humans.

Making the Experience Better (Not Just Faster)

Rory often asks marketers to imagine asking:
“What would Disney do?”

A well-known example he uses is HS2. The project has largely been justified on the basis of reducing journey time. But many travellers don’t actually care that much about shaving 15 minutes off a train journey.

What they do care about:

• Comfort
• Space
• Food
• Wi-Fi that actually works
• Feeling relaxed rather than stressed

Instead of asking “How do we make the journey shorter?”
a more powerful question might be:
“How do we make the journey so enjoyable people don’t mind how long it takes?”

That’s not abstract. That’s a direct challenge to how many brands think about value.

Real-World Marketing That Actually Works

You see magical thinking at work in some very familiar places:

Guinness
“Good things come to those who wait.” A slower pour should be a disadvantage. Instead, Guinness turned it into a symbol of quality and anticipation. Waiting became part of the experience.

IKEA
Asking customers to assemble furniture themselves should reduce satisfaction. Instead, people value the furniture more because they built it themselves – a behavioural phenomenon known as the IKEA effect.

Apple
Apple rarely leads with technical specifications. Its marketing focuses on creativity, identity and emotion. People don’t just buy a product — they buy what it represents.

None of these strategies are irrational. They’re just psychologically smarter than the obvious alternatives.

When “Safe” Marketing Backfires

On the flip side, many campaigns fail because they play it too safe:

• Generic brand messaging that could belong to anyone
• Purpose statements that feel bolted on rather than lived
• Tone-of-voice documents that remove personality instead of clarifying it

As Nathalie Nahai often highlights, audiences are highly sensitive to authenticity. They can tell when a brand is speaking at them instead of with them.

And as Richard Shotton’s work shows, small behavioural cues — language, framing, social proof — often outperform big, expensive creative ideas.

What This Means for Leaders and Marketers

The lesson here isn’t to abandon data, logic or strategy.

It’s to recognise that marketing sits at the intersection of logic and emotion — and emotion usually wins.

The most effective brands ask:

• What will this feel like from the customer’s side?
• What emotion are we triggering first?
• Are we making the “right” behaviour easy and attractive?

That’s why thinkers like Rory Sutherland, Richard Shotton, Mark Ritson and Nathalie Nahai resonate so strongly with leadership teams. They translate behavioural science into practical thinking that businesses can actually use.

A Final Thought

Marketing isn’t about convincing people with better arguments.
It’s about making the desired choice feel natural, obvious and emotionally right.

When brands understand that, they stop trying to sound clever — and start becoming effective.

And that’s where the real magic happens.

For organisations looking to explore this thinking further, our Marketing Speakers bring real-world expertise in behavioural science, brand strategy and creative communication to leadership teams and events.