Why 'Think outside the box' is the worst advice in advertising

Marketers are always telling agencies to 'think outside the box' but the most resilient brands do the opposite. They build a box worth thinking inside.

Look at Tesco in the mid-90s. Their chief exec, a canny Scot called Ian MacLaurin, made a radical proposal to the family who owned Tesco: “I want to close every Tesco in the UK for a long weekend to refit them.” The family had kittens: “That’s going to completely f**k our cashflow!” “Maybe”, said Maclaurin “But it’s going to make you the number one supermarket chain in the UK.” MacLaurin had been listening to his customers and what they told them was they hated queuing. So over that long weekend, every Tesco got more aisles and more checkouts. “Every time there’s more people in the queue, we’ll open another checkout,” he promised.

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