A Little Bit of Waste Is Good

Yes — you read that right.

I have always been pro corporate waste reduction, so it came as a surprise to me when I found myself hating some of the austerity measures and digitisation strategies used by businesses I regularly interact with.

Imagine a tech-savvy advertising guy railing against digitisation in this era!

The turning point came when I made a mock anti-delivery ad campaign for a restaurant. I was tired of pretending that every diner wants their food delivered. I genuinely believe that many people go to restaurants not primarily to eat, but as a form of social participation.

One of mock ads i made in the series of 'anti-delivery' campaign

You might disagree — but we can both agree there are faster, cheaper, and healthier ways to fill our bellies.

I remember during my previous employment that lunch in the company canteen was something to look forward to. It was a daily ritual: a break from work, grapevine news, laughter, and gossip with colleagues.

Somewhere along the way, technology companies and cost-cutting consultants forgot this social dimension of dining and decided that every restaurant must have a delivery app. Some went further and scrapped the physical dining experience altogether — forcing customers to order exclusively online.

Restaurants aren’t the only ones guilty of misjudging the social nature of their customers. Our favourite telecommunications companies have gone bonkers too.

It used to be easy to speak to a human operator within a few simple steps. Today, it feels like an eternity. The entire process has been mechanised to push you toward pre-programmed self-service options.

I imagine many customer service staff lost their jobs — while the not-so-brilliant consultant who sold this “modern cost-cutting idea” walked away with a fat cheque.

To illustrate why a human voice still matters, let me share a story from a colleague of mine — Madam Z.

Back in the day, Madam Z worked in Zanzibar for Zantel, which was once the largest telecom company on the islands. She told me that on the eve of Eid, customers would call the customer care line with no specific problem to solve — just to say “Happy Eid!”

Though I suspect they mainly wanted to listen to the soft voices on the other end of the phone 😀

In his book Alchemy, Rory Sutherland introduces Chesterton’s Fence — a principle that warns against making changes to a system before fully understanding why it exists in the first place.

Chesterton describes a “modern reformer” who encounters a fence in a field and, seeing no obvious purpose for it, decides to tear it down. Chesterton argues that the wiser reformer would say:

If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it

Sutherland expands on this idea with what he calls the Doorman Fallacy. He argues that businesses, technology firms — even governments — are relentlessly chasing measurable efficiency gains, without ever stopping to ask whether people actually like efficiency as much as economic theory assumes.

Repeat Customer loves to be identied by somebody

Consider a hotel that replaces its doorman with an automatic door-opening mechanism.

On paper, this looks efficient. In reality, it may be catastrophic.

The doorman performs countless non-measurable functions: hailing taxis, providing security, discouraging vagrancy, recognising customers, and signalling the hotel’s status. Sutherland even argues that a hotel can charge more per night simply by having a doorman.

As he puts it:

A huge cast of well-paid people, from management consultants to economic advisers, earn their entire salaries by ripping out Chesterton’s fences.

Technology companies have partly wrecked advertising and journalism by starving the press of revenue — all under the guise of efficiency. Yet advertising has never really been about efficiency. As one expert famously put it:

The part you think is wasted is the part that actually works.

Billions are now spent on digital advertising because it is assumed to be more efficient — better targeting, lower cost per eyeball — without clear evidence that it is actually more effective. Procter & Gamble once claimed to have cut $150 million from their digital ad spend without any drop in sales.

Could it be that digital advertising is, in many cases, strangely ineffectual?

Now you might be on the edge of your seat thinking: “This guy is attacking digital marketing — he must be insane!”

But hear me out.

How many times have you felt uncomfortable when digital ads suddenly start showing bikinis on your screen — simply because you accidentally clicked one lingerie ad? Now, every time you’re on public transport, you have to hide your phone while scrolling Instagram.

Sutherland explains this flaw beautifully:

The overly simplistic model of advertising asks ‘What is the advertisement saying?’ rather than ‘What does it mean that the advertiser is spending money to promote his wares?

He gives a striking example from Eastern Europe under communism. When a product was advertised, demand often fell. People inferred that if the government was promoting it, the product must be so undesirable that it didn’t require queuing — which immediately signalled low quality.

I’ve often emphasised this principle when discussing how to signal premium quality, exclusivity, or desirability — whether for products, services, or even real estate. (See my LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ayoub-kawambwa-b2953a148_the-anti-display-marketing-technique-activity-7302294045781843968-O97i?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACOsuNEBwy-baKgTyOOpVplhnMmGD9fJSXc on the anti-display marketing technique, where obscuring and limiting access could help fill an empty building!)

The deeper I ventured into the work of behavioural science giants, the more I recognised these patterns playing out in our own market.

In my book Marketing on Steroids: A Guide to an Unfair Advantage in the Marketplace, I explore this twisted relationship between waste, efficiency, and advertising in Chapters 2, 9, and 11.

Sometimes, what looks like waste is actually doing the heavy lifting.

👉 Grab your copy here: https://www.marketingonsteroidsbooks.com/