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: Buy at your own risk as more hype than revolutionary new ideas
Summary: 3 Stars
Buy ology is a well-crafted book organized around a series of fMRI studies of the brain. The premise is to explore the connection between marketing and neuroscience to understand why we buy. The premise is full of hype as Lindstrom explores connections between sight, sound, smell, sports, sex and religion and the brain.
Positioned in this way, the book should be a headline grabbing set of findings that change the way we think about brands, our purchasing decisions and the messages with which we are bombarded every day. Unfortunately, the conclusions of the brain studies are largely predictable and refine rather than revolutionize marketing and neuroscience. This makes the book a better magazine article rather than a 200+ page book.
Unless you are marketing professional or someone who has this as your hobby, your time would be better spent looking at other books that cover the same subject area with more detail and more science. I found Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee's Book "ON intelligence" and Daniel Pink's "A whole new mind" to be better books on the connections between neuroscience and social interactions.
Each chapter in Buy ology follows a similar pattern. The start sets up the issue, for example are brands as strong in peoples minds as religion. Then the author spends 20 or so pages providing review and opinion on the subject area. This part often repeats materials, stories, and findings found in every marketing book. Yes the usual suspects are quoted here "Apple's 1984" ad and the like. Finally in about a half a page, Lindstrom give the example -often based on a very small sample size - of the experiment. Then there is a rationalization of the findings that in the end maintains the status quo in marketing. For example: Brand placement in movies is more effective when the branded product in question is being used as part of the story rather than just appearing in the story. OK got it.
I do not have a problem with the science; its very interesting and I am sure is solid science. But the build up around the hypothesis, the rehashing of the issue and the not so revolutionary results make this a book to pass on in my opinion. In other words the hype and the verbosity definitely get in the way.
I am sure that this book will get much play in the media as it pits marketing against religion, sex against sales etc. It looks like this will play out along the same lines as Freakonomics - focusing on a single issue to drive controversy and attention. If you are interested in marketing, then you will most likely buy the book anyway. If you're like me and have a casual interest, then please be advised.
Book Review: Interesting Ideas; Overstated Claims
Summary: 3 Stars
Buyology is an ambitious attempt to investigate some interesting ideas. However, the data would probably be more useful if the research methodology and findings were published in a way that allowed for more rigorous review. As it reads now, Buyology seems to include numerous insufficient conditions.
For example, before measuring neural activity in the brains of smokers, test respondents were required to abstain from smoking for two and four hours prior to each test respectively. Research (Bovbjerg and Erblich 2006) suggests that abstinence-induced cravings to smoke are predicted by CBF increases (abstinence minus satiety) in the nucleus accumbens (among other regions). This is the same region Lindstrom describes as showing a pronounced response in relation to cigarette warning labels. Therefore the sequence in which tests were carried out could also be relevant. Particularly if smokers were not given the opportunity to reduce cravings by smoking between tests - since cravings are by virtue insatiable. Moreover, it is commonly understood that cigarette cravings become intensified when smokers are faced with stressful situations (McLernon & Gilbert, 2005; Erblich et al., 2005). Thus Lindstrom's own comparison of an MRI test to feeling "as if you are being buried alive in a phone booth" seems worth noting.
In addition, the relationship between test images seems unclear. For example, when subjects are shown warning labels do these appear on cigarette boxes or independently? I read it as on the box. If that is so; how can we be sure whether it was box itself or the warning label that stimulated the craving?
In my view, the main problem with Lindstrom's research is that it tends to overstate its claims. A perfectly valid conclusion may have been that warning labels do not deter smokers. However, I think the author makes a big jump to arrive at the conclusion that warning labels trigger cravings without addressing a fuller range of possibilities. Moreover, even if Lindstrom's conclusions are correct; more explanation would have been appreciated. For instance, why might gruesome warning labels trigger cravings? Instead of engaging in such discussions Lindstrom seems quick to allude to a conspiracy theory on the part of the tobacco industry instead. I guess this approach has more hype.
His research that compares brand images to religious and sporting images was fascinating and his conclusions were more conservative. However, again I think more discussion around why the brain may have responded in the way it did would have made for more interesting reading than his regular bursts of self promotion.
Book Review: so much more potential here.
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was a fascinating study of why we buy what we do involving MRI feedback versus standard market research most of us know about. The author does a fine job writing about an interesting subject enough to educate as well as entertain me. I do not regret buying the book.
However, since the nature of the title already had me thinking somewhat defensively (hm - why DID I buy this book?), I had to wonder what the author might have modified in his approach to avoid offending his likely readers (and purchasers). He took a very big but commendable risk by calling out the behavior of Apple people as akin to that of dedicated followers of an organized religion, something I've mentioned once or twice that only got me defensive sneers of derision down at the Starbucks. But he saved this till mid way thru the book, just to be safe.
Also striking was the complete absebce of any discussion of Barack Obama in the section where he discussed subliminal messages in political branding. There were a couple of gratuitous swipes at Republicans of course, but nowhere in this book about buying and branding was the phenomenon of Obama discussed. Even by the time the type was set, Obama won the primary and was obviously not just going to be handled like an ordinary candidate, yet he leaves him out. The author may not have wanted to gamble on calling the election wrong or simply didn't want to take away from someone he and his readers wished to see win the election. In either case, Obamas total absence from this book was conspicuous and disappointing.
Early on, the overly detailed and unflattering description of the author in the foreward and the authors obsession with anti-smoking (ok, we get it already - you don't like smoking...) were a bit tedious, but these are forgivable annoyances in light of the substance and entertainment value of the overall work. In particular, the part describing the mini cooper and its appeal to certain buyers was hilarious, as it may have also inadvertently explained the cars popularity with gay men (before you eagerly scream 'homophobe!', read it and see for yourself).
Thus, this was an enjoyable but cautious book that in spite of several great examples missed one of the bigest brands of the century and made other obvious attempts at pandering to the purchaser. Then again, the book is about why we buy, and the author knows how far he can go without taking a bite of the hand that feeds him. In that sense, it was well done.
Book Review: What makes us tick? What makes us buy?
Summary: 5 Stars
What compels us to buy particular products or services? Need is one factor, to be sure; however if rational judgment, utility or reason were the only factors in the buying position, then the world would be absent the global behemoth known as "Advertising." Consumers buy what they do for a variety of needs: physical, emotional, spiritual, social. They make decisions based on wants, desires, and urges, as well as utilitarian concerns. In short, people buy as much for fulfillment as they do for specific tangible purposes.
Martin Lindstrom is a recognized expert in marketing, providing insight to a variety of global companies both in the U.S. and abroad. Along with his business interests and consulting activities, he has written numerous articles in business and general publications including Advertising Age, Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Forbes. His previous book, "BRAND sense," published in 2005 to critical acclaim, focused on how companies build brand awareness and loyalty by engaging the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing).
When I began to read " buy* ology," I was somewhat skeptical of Mr. Lindstrom's assertions -- that our buying decisions depend significantly upon subconscious considerations as well as rational thoughtful analysis. As he examines the influences of such diverse elements of our psyche as religion, sex, politics, ritual, superstition, and our sensory perception, there is the recognition that we are, in a sense, slaves to our own hardwiring.
Some may look at the field of neuro-marketing as manipulation, and that may indeed be the case. Certainly, successful marketers seek to exploit target consumers by appealing to their unconscious wants and desires. However, the book also enables us to understand how we can be manipulated, so that we can better differentiate our genuine needs from our subliminal urges. This is where the book provides great value; we begin to discern and name our innermost thoughts so that can become more conscious consumers.
The information contained in the book is not entirely new. Many aspects of "subliminal" marketing and advertising -- the myths as well as the realities -- date from at least the 1950s. Mr. Lindstrom has validated many of the principles here and have given them the light of day. He writes well, integrating theory and principles with anecdotes, telling a story that can amuse as well as enlighten.
Book Review: deceptive, simplistic and nothing but marketing for his consulting business
Summary: 1 Stars
martin lindstrom is a great marketer for his consulting business and for himself and this 200 page book is a nothing but an advertisement for his business. like most marketing projects it is full of exaggerations, false conjecture and prose that consists mainly of hype. to top it all off his conclusions are simplistic and oftentimes flat out wrong. i highly recommend you do not buy this book.
to start off, he is being deceptive, as many marketers are, when he tells us the books is based on the world's largest neuromarketing experiment. he describes this as multimillion dollar project funded by a number of big corporations. what it actually is, he has compiled a number of neuromarketing studies his company has done for several big corporations and is repackaging it under the umbrella of one big giant study he took on. like most people i don't appreciate deception and dishonesty, so he's off to a very bad start.
one of the first studies he examines involves getting a number of cigarette smokers, having them not smoke for 4 hours and then scanning their brain activity as they are shown anti-smoking warnings in cigarette packs. the result of it comes out that when the smokers see these warnings areas of the brain that are associated with cravings light up. he then jumps to the conclusion that the cigarette warnings actually encourage smoking and are in itself great marketing for cigarettes. wow, that is such a simplistic and wrong conclusion it's shocking. if you make a group of nicotine addicts not get their fix for four hours, then show them images of anything related to cigarettes, good or bad, they will think of smoking mainly because they are craving the nicotine and they are being reminded of that craving. it does not mean that the anti-smoking warnings encourage smoking, all it means is that you are reminding the smoker needing a fix of cigarettes.
the book is filled with these types of ridiculous jumps to premature conclusions along with a never ending self-patting on the back and hyping of himself and his business and blowing up his ego (i won't even go into the introduction which spends about a page describing him physically as some sort of handsome cherubic young man --which he is not).
if you were expecting a malcolm gladwell type of incisive research, you will be very disappointed. do not be fooled by the cheesy marketing, this book is not worth reading.