Espresso: Rory Sutherland on Marketing vs. Perception

I think marketing is much, much more important in reality than we tend to acknowledge.

And I always say I'm a huge fan of octopus energy.

And I always think there's a parallel universe in which they decided to call themselves greentech.com. And they didn't have a pink octopus as a logo.

And in that parallel universe, they've got 30,000 customers, okay? I mean, I think how things are framed, how they're perceived, what the frame of comparison is, whether you feel something's expensive or cheap, partly depends on the price.

But far more, it actually depends.

I would say, to economists, price is a number.

To consumers, price is a feeling.

The same thing can feel expensive or feel cheap.

Entirely dependent on your... what you might call on context, mental context, environmental context.

If you go into Sunglass Hut or a premium sunglass retailer, a £70 pair of sunglasses will seem extraordinarily cheap.

If you go into Boots, it will seem insanely expensive.