The Summary
Martin Lindstrom has written an excellent book on an important subject – Neuromarketing – why we buy what we do. He presents the findings from one of the largest scientific studies conducted scanning the brains of consumers as they are exposed to marketing, branding and products. The results of this study are eye-opening and will not only change marketing but hopefully consumer buying patterns and product development.
The Audience
I realize that a book about marketing and neuroscience might not be immediately appealing to everyone, but I am confident that you will enjoy it and come away with a new understanding about yourself and why you buy. Being aimed at a broad audience does mean it lacks some of the depth that marketers would like to see, but the conclusions alone are worth the price of entry for the business crowd. Don’t expect to come away with practical strategies as a consumer or marketer but I am confident there will be a lot more books on this subject over the next few years. It is intentionally designed and marketed in the ‘Tipping Point’ mold and for once I actually think it warrants this categorization.
The Details
There have been a few books recently that look at marketing through the lens of neuroscience. Leveraging the new technologies that allow us to see what is going on in the brain when we are exposed to marketing messages and products. Martin Lindstrom, a marketing expert and consultant to some of the largest companies in the world, takes neuromarketing research to a new level. He conducted the largest study of consumers and how they really react/respond to products and their marketing. The results go far beyond and actually contradict some of the current market research and thinking.
Buy-ology is a well written book that not only explains the research without getting too technical but also explains some of the conclusions and implications. Even though this is a marketing book it will appeal to a broad audience since we are all consumers and should be interested in the findings of this book. Not only did the research contradict current thinking about marketing, but it actually contradicts our own perceptions of why we buy.
By aiming at a broad audience Lindstrom has sacrificed some of the juicy technical details behind the research; but he covers enough of neuroscience to explain the experiments and findings. The book is full of anecdotes and reads more like a page-turning thriller than your standard business book. I am fairly sure this is aimed to be another ‘Tipping Point’ or ‘Freaknomics’ type book and to be fair it actually has all the hallmarks.
I am not going to spoil the book by revealing the findings, but as a consumer it will make you think twice about what you buy, and as marketer it will definitely change your strategy and hopefully your products.
The Take-Aways
This is an important book on a subject that all of us should know about. Even though this is a marketing book and will appeal to marketers, I feel this should be read by everyone. We are all consumers and should understand how and why we buy what we do.
The fear about this book is going to be that ‘evil’ marketers will exploit this information to sell us things we don’t need, want or care about. My hope is that this information will actually:
a) Make us more aware of our own buying decisions and
b) Help companies create products that we want.
I am never one to predict the next ‘Tipping Point’ but it has all the right ingredients: important topic, new counter-intuitive information, subject with broad appeal and well written to the point of being hard-to-put-down!
I highly recommend this book. It is one of my top 5 books of 2008 going along side ‘Brain Rules’, ‘Buying In’, ‘Sway’ and ‘Snoop’.
Inventor of ThinkCube
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