Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
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Book Reviews of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
Book Review: Good enough to buy and share
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always been suspicious of focus groups, consumer surveys and approaches that claim to determine what people really think. The recent presidential campaign did away with some of that, since people really did vote the way they said they would, laying waste to the Bradley factor pundits. In Buyology, Martin Lindstrom introduces neuroscience into the process by scanning the brain activities of consumers. He describes some rather novel ideas, like scanning the brains of nuns to identify the patterns of religious rapture, then looking for the same patterns in consumers. Other experiments look at the efficacy of warning messages on cigarette packs (they encourage people to smoke) and the effects of sex (highly overrated) and memory (smell triggers an astounding array of motivations) on buying patterns. I can agree with olfactory memory- the smell of a Dutch Masters cigar still evokes a wave of feelings about my grandfather, and he's been gone over 30 years.
Perhaps the most important thing I got from the book was the idea of Smashability - that your brand needs to be so clear and pervasive that any piece of it still instantly recognizable as you. His example is the Coke bottle. When it was designed in 1914, the whole purpose of its shape and style was to ensure that even when smashed to bits, each bit is recognizable as part of that original bottle. Simple, but brilliant.
Buyology is a quick read, entertaining, quotable, and unnerving. I'm sharing it with my partners here at Convey Communications. It's just the thing for celebrating this year of change.
Book Review: BUYology forces us to look at advertising & marketing from a new perspective
Summary: 5 Stars
With his perpetual globe-trotting ways, and front seat access to the practices of leading brands worldwide, Martin Lindstrom has his finger on the pulse of the latest, bravest and best of worldwide marketing, advertising and consumer behavioral trends.
BUYology is a direct product of Lindstrom's futuristic vision for brands everywhere. Before BUYology, we were presented with BrandChild and BrandSense, where in each case, he brought us new concepts, research and theorems that we now take for granted in branding strategies.
In his constant quest to find out ways to build better brands, Lindstrom's BUYology forces us, yet again, to look at branding, advertising and marketing from a new perspective. In this case, through neuroscience, he investigates whether marketers can unlock consumers' subconscious thoughts and better understand their motivations to buy. Through extensive research, Lindstrom demystifies and questions some well anchored tactical advertising assumptions and myths, e.g. does sex sell, really? When it does, he tells us the why and the how.
The book is written in a conversational, approachable tone. It is filled with Lindstrom's colorful storytelling, examples that corroborate each point that he is making. As he mentions, until now, most advertising and marketing has been a guessing game. It seems that the marketing folk as well as the consumer can learn some new tricks with this book.
Book Review: Very interesting reading
Summary: 5 Stars
As time goes on after reading Buyology, the more I love the book. It puts a whole new spin on how we should approach our audiences/consumers in the future. I am going to talk about the section that appealled to me the most. The scare tactic warning labels on cigarettes. As a smoker, i have really been thinking more and more on this subject and analyzing myself. Oprah had a stop smoking show on the other day, I was surprised at how much, just the fact they were discussing smoking, made me want to have a cigarette. I thought back to the book and your study makes absolute sense, those labels dont do anything at all to make me want to stop smoking, and in fact make me want to smoke whenever they are discussed in general conversation. Maybe a simple statement like, "When is my quit date going to be" would work a lot better. To get the idea of planning to quit into the heads of smokers seems a lot more sensible. However Martin has really opened our eyes to how we think, why we think and what we really think. It really makes you look at many things in a different aspect. I think this book is a must read for not only people in the branding and marketing industry, but possibly for the average person to get a insite into themselves and others. Well done Martin. The more time that passes, the more i appreciate your book. I know our company will certainly be changing our strategies in the future and we have you to thank for that. Excellent work.Book Review: brilliant, timely, eye-opening
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not a marketer, or all that interested in business-type books (though like most people I do like to shop). But this book was being reviewed all over the place and I saw it on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and I thought it sounded like the perfect business book. Well, it is. I couldn't put it down, and when was the last time I said that about a book about the sly and subtle ways that businesses and advertisers try and get us to buy their stuff? By the time I put this book down, I couldn't even look at my iPod in the same way. Lindstrom carried out a global survey of customers using brain-scanning so he could peer into their minds as they observed various logos and such. Along the way he presents intriguing, and at times devastating, scientific findings on brands and religion (Apple computers light up the same region of the brain as do pictures of rosary beads and churches), subliminal advertising and tobacco, and most startling of all -- AND WHY ISN'T THE WHOLE WORLD REPORTING ON THIS? -- that cigarette warning labels, rather than discouraging smokers, actually make them want to smoke. Hello? I know we're in a crucial election issue, and that the economy is tanking, but the fact this isn't a headline around the world that's causing policy makers to rethink their strategies just boggles my mind. A superb, illuminating read -- easy to read science with fascinating anecdotes.Book Review: Elementary My Dear Watson
Summary: 5 Stars
Sherlock Holmes understood how to take the complex and see the simplicity. Martin Lindstrom has done the same in this book to separate fact from fiction.
Sales success is very much dependent upon buying success. Yet, much has been written both truthfully and untruthfully about why people buy. Using brain research and technology, Lindstrom shows neurological evidence about how the mind makes decisions specific to buying or not buying something. He compares this data to current acceptable marketing and sales beliefs.
One of my most favorite examples is the message on cigarette products and how they are hazardous to your health. From Lindstrom's research, this message actually encourages people to smoke not discourage them.
His research spans several geographic regions as well as includes a diversity of testing population. Through this 3 year and $7 million study, sales professionals have the ability to understand why people buy what they buy and just as importantly what they do not buy.
Lindstrom presents a powerful and complex subject in a fairly non-complex read. For those in sales, understanding the why behind the purchasing decision is necessary if they wish to increase sales and be The Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits