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Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy | 
 enlarge | Author: Martin Lindstrom
Publisher: Doubleday Business
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.45
You Save: $11.50 (46%)
New (49) Used (11) from $11.99
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 349
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0385523882
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.834
EAN: 9780385523882
ASIN: 0385523882
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them?
In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his finding:
Gruesome health warnings on cigarette packages not only fail to discourage smoking, they actually make smokers want to light up.
Despite government bans, subliminal advertising still surrounds us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves.
"Cool” brands, like iPods trigger our mating instincts.
Other senses – smell, touch, and sound - are so powerful, they physically arouse us when we see a product.
Sex doesn't sell. In many cases, people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses not only fail to persuade us to buy products - they often turn us away .
Companies routinetly copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars.
Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Read the dustcover and you can save yourself the purchase price November 20, 2008
Nick Ellery (Australia)
From the forward, where one of Martin's colleagues blow plumes of apple-scented smoke up Martin's rear end, to the section where Martin tells us how youthful his face is, to the disappointing and fundamentaaly flawed research methods employed in the so-called 'research', this book is one big disappointment. Despite the hype created by the book's publicists and Martin himself, there's little here for people truly interested in the science of marketing.
Bloodless brain surgery November 19, 2008
Robin J. Lambert (Central Florida)
I've watched Martin Lindstrom's (the author) podcasts for his very insightful examinations of how companies successfully integrate specific strategies into their branding efforts. I have utilized some of these strategies both into the building of my business and into the business of associates for whom I consult and/or collaborate with. Buy*ology is another tool that allows marketing and sales efforts to have a better chance for success by providing an awareness of the workings of the human mind in a way that has never been available before. The comprehensive tests used for the information presented in the book just skim the surface of examining the socioeconomic responses of the human brain yet the book provides answers to why people respond as they do, often in ways both unexpected and seemingly bizarre, enabling us the ability to predict responses (in my case to marketing efforts) with better accuracy and results. A must read for anyone wanting to increase the success of their marketing and branding strategies.
 Nothing new here November 19, 2008
30yrs of Diabetes (Seattle, WA USA)
I was disappointed. Lindstrom's writing style is entertaining enough, but the slender book belabored some obvious points and Lindstrom's ego bordered on being obnoxious. To paraphrase a critic in a review for another book - the book was both new and entertaining, but what was new was not entertaining and what was entertaining was not new. Ok, he hooked people up to electrodes and used an fMRI or SST or something to document "neuromarketing." Images trigger responses in your brain. Martin Lindstrom is smart and travels a lot. Got it. I hope I didn't spoil the ending for anyone but that's really the three-sentence summary of "Buyology."
 Martin's a leader in this field. November 18, 2008
Ric Fletcher (Tasmania, Australia)
I have to admit that I have a bias about Martin Lindstrom's books. His incredibly enthusiastic line of enquiry and fascination with marketing, together with his experiences around the world make this a riveting investigation about human nature and what makes us tick (buy) when we walk into a shop. It all makes so much sense. The three years of research and academic study behind the book add a powerful understanding and legitimacy to this witty and most importantly, entertaining read!
Preliminary Conclusions About Neuromarketing November 17, 2008
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
As Martin Lindstrom explains in the Introduction, he set out to understand "what's going on in our brains that makes us chose one brand over another - what information passes through our brain's filter and what information doesn't -- well that would be key to truly building brands of the future." After completing a three-year, multimillion-dollar "journey" with 2,081 volunteers he enlisted (from America, England, Germany, Japan, and the Republic of China), he shares what are best viewed as preliminary conclusions about neuromarketing.
In fact, as I read this book, I became convinced that whatever revelations (albeit preliminary) the research study might provide would have broader and deeper implications with regard to how most (if not all) people make decisions, not only about brands but also about questions to answer, problems to solve, opportunities to pursue, perils to avoid, etc. One of Lindstrom's several objectives was (and is) to gain a better understanding of "our own seemingly irrational behavior - whether it's why we buy a designer shirt or how we assess a job candidate"...or those who seek the presidency of the United States. Once we gain such an understanding, Lindstrom asserts, we actually gain [begin italics] more [end italics] control, not less, over the decision-making process.
Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in such high regard. Here are three of mine. First, Lindstrom immediately establishes and then sustains a personal rapport with his reader. He makes brilliant use of direct address but also of first-person plural pronouns that make the reader feel as if she or he was a companion during the "journey" to which Lindstrom refers. In fact, each reader completes her or his own journey also. The metaphor is especially apt, invoked for the last time when Lindstrom concludes his book: P.S. If you want to continue this journey into Buyology, log on to www.MartinLindstrom.com and step into a world - with its truth and lies - which we've just begun to explore."
I also hold this book in high regard because all of its preliminary revelations, conclusions, observations, etc. are research-driven. I was impressed by the number of other studies he cites throughout his narrative. For example, in Chapter 5 ("Do You Believe in Magic? Ritual, Superstition, and Why We Buy"), he cites studies by the Journal of Family Psychology and BBDO Worldwide. They and other studies cited elsewhere in the book help to increase our understanding of the importance of rituals and superstitions to the decision-making process. Lindstrom cites several daily rituals to illustrate key points, then observes: "One thing is clear. Ritual and superstition can exert a potent influence on how and what we buy. After six years of studying product rituals and their effects on branding, it struck me: might religion - which is so steeped in familiar and comforting rituals of its own - play a way in why we buy as well?" On to the next chapter in which Lindstrom shares what he learned about similarities between religious and spiritual symbols and their commercial counterparts. In that chapter as in all others, preliminary revelations, conclusions, observations, etc. are research-driven.
My third reason is a personal one and thus may reveal more about me than it does about this book. Many years ago, I came upon Voltaire's suggestion that we cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it. Since then, I have had what I hope is a healthy skepticism about absolutes as well as assertions based on limits such as "all" or "never." I have tried very hard to develop what Hemingway once characterized as a "built-in, shock-proof crap detector"...especially if the crap in question is my own. Then I began to read this book and by the time I reached the fourth chapter, I realized that no matter what I may think I think and (especially) believe, I may not - in fact -- know. On the contrary, subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires may well determine most (if not all) of the decisions I make every day. So I now plan to re-read Lindstrom's book after activating the aforementioned detector. What will I become aware of this time around that I missed previously? My own journey continues....
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