Design Indya

This week’s read is a must if your work involves navigating marketing budgets, and the constant pressure to improve metrics:

“Marketing’s Misleading metric”
Alex Murrell

Murrell critiques the industry's absolute obsession with Return on Investment (RoI), calling out the dangerous trap of making it the ultimate KPI for brand-building.

While RoI is treated as a sacred, unquestionable metric, his argument exposing its mathematical and strategic flaws is completely bulletproof.

This piece cuts through the noise of modern marketing, offering a way to think about:

1️⃣ why confusing relative efficiency with absolute effectiveness actively reduces a brand's total profit,

2️⃣ how the "RoI trap" forces brands to slash media spend, simply because efficiency naturally drops as you scale,

3️⃣ and why chasing the highest ratio forces you to "preach to the choir" (targeting existing heavy buyers) instead of acquiring the new, light buyers actually needed for growth.

💥 The most gut-punching invitation to think?

"Trying to maximize RoI is a good way to destroy your brand."

Murrell quotes Les Binet and sarah carter to land his point about how setting RoI as THE goal creates a dangerous, perverse incentive.

Just like the archaeologists who offered a reward for finding Dead Sea scrolls unintentionally caused people to tear the priceless parchments in half to double their payout, marketers are tearing apart long-term potential just to hit a ratio.

RoI is a perfectly valid metric for short-term, tactical sales activations. But using it for long-term brand building will trap your brand in a doom loop—shifting investment away from future growth just to capture immediate, but shrinking, returns.

So which path will you choose long-term?

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[marketing effectiveness, return on investment, ROI trap, Alex Murrell, marketing strategy, brand building, advertising metrics, business growth, performance marketing, marketing efficiency vs effectiveness, Les Binet, Mark Ritson, media spend, customer acquisition, Goodharts Law, perverse incentives, short term vs long term marketing, brand investment, marketing science, B2B marketing]

This week’s read is a must if your work involves brand strategy, creative direction, or defending your ideas in a boardroom:

“Is Everything BS?”
Rory Sutherland, Behavioral Scientist |

In this brilliant essay adapted from his 2021 talk from Consulting's , Sutherland explores what happens when strict economic logic collides with the unpredictability of human behavior, offering a way to think about:

1️⃣ why treating business problems like physics equations, where past data perfectly predicts the future, fails when dealing with complex human systems,

2️⃣ how psychological variables like scarcity, mood, framing, and story can dramatically shift sales without ever changing the product or its price,

3️⃣ and why demanding that every creative idea makes strict logical sense before it is tested artificially narrows your entire solution space.

💥 The most crucial insight?

We have built a bizarre decision-making process where reductionist math often comes first, and creativity comes last.

Sutherland perfectly captures the marketer's ultimate dilemma: when a product isn't selling, a boardroom full of executives will immediately demand to drop the price.

But what if the real answer is simply adding a psychological dimension? What if the answer is just to "make it pink"?

If we obsess over what makes rational sense based on past data, it becomes a massive constraint on innovation and experimentation.

To win in a landscape driven by human unpredictability, brands shouldn't just test the things that make sense, but find the bravery to also test the things that don't make any sense at all.

Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/e62mS452

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[behavioral science, consumer psychology, behavioral economics, Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy, creative problem solving, decision making, marketing strategy, consumer behavior, human psychology, irrational behavior, choice architecture, placebo effect, social proof, scarcity value, innovation strategy, business creativity, lateral thinking, counterintuitive ideas, testing variables, decision hygiene, cognitive bias, marketing insights]

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In advertising, popularity is often mistaken for effectiveness.

Brands monitor sentiment. They track reactions. They optimize for approval.

But approval and impact don’t always travel together.

Some truths feel risky not because they’re inaccurate, but because they disrupt comfort.

But strong brands don’t simply reflect culture. They actively shape it.

What truth would your brand say if consensus weren’t the goal?

Think about it.

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MINT

A short provocation.
One question
Meant to reset default thinking in advertising.

No tips. No hacks.
Just better questions.

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[advertising strategy, marketing strategy, brand strategy, strategic thinking, creative strategy, marketing insights, brand positioning, category strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing leadership, business strategy, brand growth, modern marketing, agency strategy, advertising leadership, marketing analysis, strategic planning, innovation thinking, decision making, brand development, culture, disruption]

This week’s read is a must if your work involves brand building, long-term creativity, or advertising that earns its place:

“Timeless Lessons for Building Brands Through Creativity”
Marc S. Pritchard — Chief Brand Officer,

This essay by Pritchard, one of the most enduring voices in global marketing, offers a way to think about

1️⃣ why knowing your consumer still changes everything,
2️⃣ why advertising should be built to last,
3️⃣ and why consistency, not reinvention, drives brand growth.

💥 The most provocative takeaway?

Pritchard's unapologetic rejection of the word "content."

He argues that the digital drive to "catch the algorithm" has hijacked the industry, trapping marketers on a "hamster wheel of content activity, often devoid of craft".

Instead, he challenges us to abandon this cycle and fall back in love with the true art and science of advertising.

Why?

Because consumers deserve our highest level of craftsmanship.

Read it here: https://lnkd.in/ght_wuGQ

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In advertising, strategy often rests on things we treat as obvious.

Who the audience is. What the category allows. What will or won’t work.

Over time, these beliefs settle into certainty. Not because they’re tested repeatedly — but because they’re repeated confidently.

The risk isn’t having assumptions. It’s forgetting they’re provisional.

Sometimes the most strategic move isn’t a new idea.
It’s a questioned belief.

What belief would you question this week?

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MINT

A short provocation.
One question
Meant to reset default thinking in advertising.

No tips. No hacks.
Just better questions.

__

[advertising strategy, marketing strategy, brand strategy, strategic thinking, creative strategy, marketing insights, brand positioning, category strategy, consumer behaviour, marketing leadership, business strategy, brand growth, modern marketing, agency strategy, advertising leadership, marketing analysis, strategic planning, innovation thinking, decision making, brand development]