Marketing is not meant to be logical

Logic Is Secretly Killing Your Marketing 

In today’s blog I want to talk about logic. 

And why it might be the very thing holding your marketing back. 

Jamie Laing, co-founder of Candy Kittens, put it perfectly: 

‘Logic is a great thing to follow if you want to get back to the safe space where everyone else is. If you're flying a plane or parking a car, logic is a great thing to follow.’ 

He’s right. 

If I’m 30,000 feet in the air, I want the pilot choosing the logical option every single time. If I’m parallel parking on a busy street, logic is my best mate. 

But in marketing? 

Ending up where everyone else is… is the worst possible outcome. 

As Bill Bernbach said back in 1949: 

‘To not be different is virtually suicidal.’ 

Read that again. 

Because that’s the bit most brands ignore. 

We’re Wired for Logic 

As humans, we’re built to lean on logic. It keeps us safe. It helps us make sense of things. It stops us doing stupid stuff. 

Which is exactly why it creeps into marketing meetings. 

Someone sees a campaign that worked. It looks clean. Sensible. Safe. The numbers stack up. So the thought process is simple: 

Let’s do something like that. 

And to be fair, that is logical. 

It’s just not effective. 

Because marketing doesn’t exist in a neat, rational world. 

Marketing Is Chaos 

Marketing lives in busy feeds, crowded high streets and half-watched TV screens. 

People aren’t sitting there with a clipboard comparing your features against three competitors. They’re scrolling. Skimming. Half listening. Distracted. 

Logic is designed to reduce risk and remove ambiguity. 

Marketing needs to create contrast. 

Logic makes you blend in. 

Marketing needs you to stand out. 

The Biggest Lie We Tell Ourselves 

The biggest mistake marketers make is assuming people are paying attention. 

They’re not. 

They’re tired. They’re busy. They’ve got 47 tabs open. They’re making decisions in seconds. 

They’re not choosing the ‘best’ option. 

They’re choosing the one that feels easiest. The one they recognise. The one that feels obvious. 

That’s it. 

Simple Wins 

That’s why the best campaigns are usually simple. 

Not because the audience is stupid. But because they don’t care enough to work hard. 

David Ogilvy said it best: 

‘The consumer isn’t a moron, she’s your wife.’ 

What he meant is this. 

You don’t dumb things down to the point of being patronising. You wouldn’t speak to your wife like she’s incapable of understanding something, so don’t do it to your customers. 

But equally, you wouldn’t try to impress her with unnecessary jargon, fancy adjectives and bright colours for the sake of it, hoping that noise equals persuasion. 

She’s intelligent. 

She just doesn’t want to work harder than she needs to. 

That’s the balance. 

Make it clear. Make it easy. Make it respectful. 

Don’t overcomplicate it to look clever. 
And don’t oversimplify it to the point of insult. 

People aren’t morons. 

They’re just busy. 

And busy people reward clarity. 

Logic Comes After the Decision 

Here’s the part most people get wrong. 

Logic doesn’t drive decisions. It justifies them. 

We feel first. Then we rationalise. 

If humans were truly logical, brands wouldn’t exist. The cheapest option would win every time. There would be no loyalty, no preference, no premium positioning. 

But that’s not how it works. 

We buy with emotion. Then we explain it with logic so we feel clever about it. 

The Purple Cow Problem 

Seth Godin wrote an entire book about this. Purple Cow. 

The idea is simple. 

If you’re driving through the countryside and you see cow after cow after cow, you stop noticing them. They’re normal. Expected. Logical. 

But if you saw a purple cow? 

You’d look. 

You’d probably slow down. 

You’d almost certainly grab your phone and stick it on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. Because it’s different. It breaks the pattern. It forces attention. 

That’s the point. 

Being remarkable does not mean being outrageous for the sake of it. It means being different enough to interrupt the autopilot people are living on. 

Most brands are white & black cows. 

Polished. Professional. Perfectly logical. 

And completely ignorable. 

Standing out often feels illogical in the boardroom. It feels risky. It feels uncomfortable. 

But illogical is often the fastest way to become visible. 

And you cannot be chosen if you are not seen. 

What Marketing Is Actually Supposed to Do 

Marketing isn’t there to convince. 

It’s there to make the right choice feel obvious. 

Obvious beats optimal. 

Familiar beats impressive. 

Recognisable beats technically better. 

Every time. 

Safe Is Expensive 

The safest option in marketing is usually the least effective one. 

Because safe looks like everything else. 

Logic keeps you in the middle. 
Distinctiveness moves you forward. 

And yes, it takes guts to do something that doesn’t feel immediately sensible. That’s why most brands don’t. 

They follow the numbers. The templates. The trends. 

And then wonder why nobody remembers them. 

If you want to be effective, you cannot aim to be sensible. 

You have to aim to be remembered. 

So, to end. I’d like to ask you. 

What is your purple cow?