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: Should appeal to the Blink crowd
Summary: 4 Stars
In his book Buyology, Martin Lindstrom discusses the conclusions he reached after conducting a three-year neuromarketing study. Marketers have traditionally used two tools to determine the efficacy of advertising campaigns--observation of the real-life buying decisions of people and feedback in the form of polls and questionnaires. These are inexact tools, particularly the latter, as people are very often not conscious of the factors that lead them to make buying decisions, and thus are poor reporters of their motivations. Lindstrom and his team of scientists, by contrast, used brain-scanning instruments (magnetic resonance imaging and steady-state typography) on more than 2000 volunteers to track their subjects' responses to advertisements and brands in real time. The scientific equipment allowed Lindstrom and his team to observe their volunteers' physical responses to various stimuli, which were very often at odds with the subjects' self-reported responses.
In Buyology, Lindstrom discusses the results of his study, touching on myriad topics related to marketing--subliminal advertising, the relationship between brands and rituals, the influence of our non-visual senses on buying decisions, the curious allure of unboxing videos, and so on. Lindstrom grounds his discussions in real-world examples, which makes for interesting reading. He discusses, for example, the success enjoyed (or not) by the sponsors of American Idol, the ritual of eating an Oreo cookie or pouring a Guinness, the unfulfilled promise of the Segway.
Lindstrom promises that his findings will "transform the way you think about how and why you buy." While some of the results were unexpected--for example, that warning labels on cigarette packs actually encourage smokers to light up because they activate an area of the brain associated with cravings*--I didn't find myself particularly surprised by any of the material presented. But certainly what Lindstrom has to say is interesting, and his book may make readers more aware of the ways in which they are being manipulated by advertisers. (Readers may, like me, imagine that they are above many of the tricks advertisers use. The various tactics of high-end clothing stores are surely lost on someone like myself, for example, who is rarely attired in anything more stylish than Russell Athletics sweatpants, and who would run screaming from a pair of Manolo Blahniks. But none of is completely immune to the siren song of artfully presented merchandise: I'm as apt as anyone to swoon over the latest Apple gadget.)
Buyology, then, is relevant to almost everyone. It's also highly readable. Indeed, Lindstrom presents his information in laudably clear prose, and he is adept at tossing out teasers to keep his audience interested. The book should appeal to anyone who enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, which likewise packages thought-provoking discussion of how we make decisions in accessible prose.
* Likewise, graphic anti-smoking ads encourage smokers to smoke. But Lindstrom doesn't discuss whether the ads and warning labels are effective in deterring non-smokers from picking up the habit.
-- Debra Hamel
Book Review: Interesting and yet...
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed Buy.ology. As a humane educator and president of the Institute for Humane Education ([...]), one of the most important skills I hope to impart among my students is the ability to think critically and gain freedom from manipulation and brainwashing (to the degree possible). Thus, books such as this are very useful to me and to the students in our M.Ed. and certificate programs in Humane Education and our training workshops. The new use of fMRI technology to understand our responses to advertising and branding is fascinating, and I found the chapter demonstrating the similarities in brain response to beloved brands and beloved religious icons especially so.
I had hoped for more on the ethics of branding and advertising, however, especially after reading the Foreward by Paco Underhill that describes Martin Lindstrom as exuding virtue. But there's nothing virtuous about Lindstrom's work or his book. He consults to multinational corporations, many of which engage in egregious human rights violations, environmental destruction, animal cruelty, and pervasive manipulation solely for profit. In one story in the book, Lindstrom describes an assignment to "brand eggs." I had hoped, finally, to hear Mr. Lindstrom speak truthfully about an industry when he writes "I found myself standing inside one of the largest egg farms in the world." Modern egg "farms" or more honestly, factories, cram hens into cages so small they are unable to even stretch their wings, let alone walk. The conditions in modern egg factories are so cruel and unnatural that it's no surprise that he would be hired to improve sales of these unhealthy eggs by helping "this company create the perfect yellow" egg yolk. Lindstrom writes, "for ethical reasons, I couldn't support the idea of adding artificial coloring to the grain, so instead, I identified a vitamin mixture that could be added to the hens' feed that would produce yolks from light yellow to middling-yellow to the passionate yellow...." It amazed me that for ethical reasons, Mr. Lindstrom couldn't support artificial coloring, but had no ethical concerns about the conditions for the chickens. Does Mr. Lindstrom know that the male hatchlings from the supply house were likely discarded (killed) by being dumped into the trash or ground alive, or that the hens would ultimately live for a year under brutal conditions before being killed without regard to even the most basic level of humane treatment?
Mr. Lindstrom says at the end of his book that he hopes he has helped the reader to escape "all the tricks and traps that companies use to seduce us to their products and get us to buy and take back our rational minds," but this rings false. Martin Lindstrom has built his entire career on consulting to and serving these companies so that they will be ever more effective at persuading us to buy their products.
Nonetheless, I recommend this book because in it you'll find valuable information for resisting branding and gaining a modicum of freedom from relentless advertising.
Book Review: Brain Scan Studies Have Same Problems As Psychotherapy
Summary: 4 Stars
Lots of probably valid conclusions from an enthusiastic and well-known marketing expert. He has conducted a giant study on what makes good advertising by studying subconscious human responses to commercials - using SSI (EEG-like) and fMRI (brain scans using magnets). The bulk of his words, however, are not about the experiments. They are well-known summaries of what was already known about advertising, summed up by the author's quote from one guy who said something to the effect of, "half of my advertising money is wasted. Trouble is, I don't know which half."
Problem is, brain studies might be over-rated for this purpose. A few companies are trying to make an fMRI lie detector that works but so far the success rate is inferior to the old-fashioned polygraph that is still not accepted by the courts. According to Margaret Talbot in her 2007 New Yorker article "Duped" (and cited by this author), there have been only a few valid studies and their authors disagree about which areas of the brain "light up" to represent given emotions. Just as importantly, there is no way to separate out the complex differences between personality groups. A lie might be a sure way to hell to a religious zealot, a fun way to go through life for a womanizer, but a necessity for a criminal.
Subjects studied have been mostly college students. For real lie-detection, the subject group would be suspects indicted for felonies or husbands trying to disprove their infidelity - rather than casual subjects trying to make an easy $100 between college classes...and the studies don't even begin to evaluate self-deception. Some of the same problems are undoubtedly present when applying brain studies to evaluating advertising.
Talbot mentions that more fMRI studies might be performed except that the machines costs well over a million dollars, require highly trained technicians, and are heavily booked with medical patients. Furthermore, an adequate test can be lengthy (longer than required for medical testing), any minor patient movement ruins the scan, the setting is intimidating, and the results can be fuzzy. The fMRI machines themselves are known to have bad hair days (seeing things that are not there) and sometimes cause unnecessary operations. For mainly financial reason, our author did ten times as many SSI studies as he did fMRI, but SSI studies have the same problem: doing the test is easy compared to getting a valid interpretation everyone can agree on.
Nevertheless, The assertions of the author are reasonable. For one thing, they rely as much on tenets of evolutionary psychology and previous marketing studies as they do on his brain scan and EEG tests. The book is worth reading, but jumping on the brain scan bandwagon as a panacea for accurately evaluating subconscious issues may be premature.
Book Review: Why We Engage in Behavior for Which We Have No Logical or Clear-Cut Explanation
Summary: 5 Stars
Contrary to some of my fellow reviewers who have reviewed "Buy-ology," I found it to be a worthwhile and interesting read. Yes, it is somewhat self-promoting but for those of who are not market research experts, the author provides valuable insights on how companies and politicians will be selling to us in the near future. It is both fascinating and frightening.
Author Martin Lindstrom focuses on emerging new research tools based on the convergence of medical knowledge, technology, and marketing which is leading to a new ability to scan the brain and measure our reactions to external stimuli. "Buy-ology" is the result of a three year long multimillion dollar journey that included the US, Germany, England, Japan, and China.
Lindstrom along with other market researchers has always been puzzled by what people say and by what they really do which is very different. Focus groups and personal interviews, a mainstay of market research, have proven to have limited value in solving this dilemma. Meanwhile, 80% of all new products fail and companies are in dire need to improve their odds of success.
The book presents Lindstrom's findings as he employs brain scanning to reveal "the hidden truths behind how branding and marketing messages work on the human brain, how our truest selves react to stimuli at a level far deeper than conscious thought, and how our unconscious minds control our behavior."
Lindstrom confirms scientifically that while we check off stuff on questionnaires, our brain - the ultimate no-bull zone - will adamantly contradict us. And like it or not, we all consistently engage in behavior for which we have no logical or clear-cut explanation. Neuromarketing, which Lindstrom calls this new field, does provide underlying answers to what it is that we do and do not react to.
"Buy-ology" focuses on the following questions:
* Does product placement work? (No)
* How powerful are brand logos? (Fragrance and sound are more potent than any logo alone)
* Does effective subliminal advertising still take place? (Yes)
* Is our buying behavior affected by the world's major religions? (Yes and increasingly so)
* Does sex in advertising work? (Not really)
There are results some readers will believe to be obvious... or are they? Or has Lindstrom presented his information in a way that resonates with our experience? I believe it is the latter. I particularly liked his sections on mirror neurons, the ten common pillars of leading religions and how they get translated into our purchasing experience, BBDO's outline of daily rituals, and the role of somatic and sensory markers.
All in all, I think most lay readers, non-marketers, will find that "Buy-ology" will transform the way they think about how and why they buy. They will become ever so "mindful."
Book Review: The strength of this book's reviews surprises me.
Summary: 3 Stars
Buyology is quite a mixed bag, with some good points offset by some weaker points. Overall, it doesn't seem to be as strong an offering as its reviews might indicate.
Starting with the book's strengths, Lindstrom does give some insight into marketing ploys that work, and marketing ploys that don't, and then links them to our brain activity to explain their effectiveness or lack thereof. He shows how associating a brand with a feeling or emotion can make or break the brand when it comes time to buy. He shows how people have come to associate Nokia's widely-recognized ring tone with rudeness and interruption, demonstrating that even effective branding can be a negative.
Beyond the writing of the book, there are good things about the work that Lindstrom and his colleagues are doing. A marketer could use Lindstrom's information to stop wasting money on ineffective advertising and a consumer could use it to understand how they are baited into spending money they probably shouldn't. These are definite positives.
Both the book and Lindstrom's work have real negatives associated with them, however. The book starts with about 30 pages of self-congratulation by Lindstrom. Anyone who knows marketing should know that it's never about you, it's about your audience. Lindstrom seems to completely miss that basic marketing lesson and the book suffers. The second issue is that the book is filled with contradiction. First, Lindstrom says that you can get people to buy by using attractive models that people aspire to be like (a la Abercrombie and Fitch). Later in the book, he says using attractive people doesn't work because it takes your mind off the product, or makes it hard for you to associate with the brand. So which is it? How do I use that information? There are further instances of blatant contradiction in the book.
The work itself is a little troubling. As a consumer, it worries me to think that companies are figuring out how to push my "buy button" not by coming up with value-added products, but by tapping into my hard-wired emotional and sub-conscious centers. Spooky. Lindstrom mentions this problem, but dismisses it lightly saying that his research will simply allow companies to avoid wasting marketing spending and allow consumers to be aware of how marketers may take advantage of them. I'm not sure I buy that.
Overall, there's some interesting research that's been done here, but it seems like it's early in the process and researches haven't figured out exactly what they've found and how to use it responsibly or effectively. If you want an early look at an emerging marriage of business and science, check this book out. But if you're looking for a fully-formed summary of the brain science of why we buy, this isn't it.