01 / THE MOVE
Something worth knowing.
A brand move, or a pattern I clocked somewhere completely ordinary.
Sold: The marketing that gets in your head
Why great marketing works on you.
Every Tuesday, I break down one marketing move I can’t stop thinking about: why it landed, and what’s worth stealing.
IKEAA strong ending can change what gets remembered.
NetflixWhen doing nothing means “continue”, plenty of people continue.
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The psychology hiding inside great marketing, and why it works on you.
For anyone who wants sharper instincts for what makes an idea stick, and why people buy it. If you market or build things for a living, even better.
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Famous tactics.
Hidden psychology.
Invaluable lessons.
Every issue starts with something a brand did, or something I can’t stop turning over in my head; either way, I dig into the psychology behind it, and I’m honest about where the evidence stops and my own read begins.
02 / THE WHY
I work out why it landed.
Psychology, timing, culture, sometimes plain human stubbornness, whatever’s doing the work.
03 / THE STEAL
You leave with something to use.
An idea you can put to work straight away.
Sold, by Mark Laurie
I’ve spent 15 years in marketing, retail and service businesses, working with global brands across international markets.
Somewhere in there, my brain got stuck in an odd setting: I can’t switch it off (ask my partner, she’s stopped being surprised). A weird price on a menu, a queue engineered a little too well: I clock it, then I can’t leave it alone until I’ve worked out why.
Marketing director for a computer brand, then a decade building and selling my own retail business. Different rooms, same obsession. That obsession is what Sold runs on: brand stories, the stuff I notice on an ordinary Tuesday, opinions I’m still arguing with myself about, and ideas borrowed from people whose thinking I rate.