Wanted: an economic model that doesn't ignore people and marketing

The neoclassical model of economics that dominates business is inimical to marketing, assuming that individual consumers with perfect information and constant preferences make decisions to maximise their own individual utility.

Wanted: an economic model that doesn't ignore people and marketing

Rory SutherlandOgilvy

Rory Sutherland explores schools of economics that are much friendlier to marketing than the neoclassical model that dominates today's thinking.

Those of you who are, like me, only dimly familiar with the writings of Peter Drucker will at least know one of his most famous pronouncements: "There are only two things in a business that make money – innovation and marketing. Everything else is a cost."

I have probably quoted this assertion once or twice but, to be frank, I had never used it very confidently. It...

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