Book Review: Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

Title: Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

Author: Martin Lindstrom

Genre: Non-fiction

Publisher: Crown Business

"How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today's message-cluttered world? In Buyology, Martin Linstrom 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. Does sex actually sell? Does subliminal advertising still surround us? Can "cool" brands trigger our mating instincts? Can our other senses--smell, touch, and sound--be aroused when we see a product? His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what captures our interest--and drives us to buy."

What if I told you there was a way for Marketing and Science to join forces? What if I told you that there was a way for companies to know exactly what people are thinking about their brands by peering into their brains? What if I told you that there already are companies who use this combination of science and marketing (called Neuromarketing) to develop their products or their ad campaigns specifically to cater to their target market's needs and preferences, by tailoring them around the results of their study? Does this sound impossible?

No it's not. 

In his book Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, Martin Lindstrom shares how marketers are able to look into the consumers' minds through a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner which is able to show which parts of a person's brain (responsible for different emotional responses) show the most activity when people are shown different advertisements or products. In this book, Mr. Lindstrom points out the inaccuracies of traditional research methods conducted by marketers, as the respondents of the studies (the customers) may not necessarily be honest about why they buy certain brands or products over the others; either that or they just really don't know why they buy what they buy. Neuromarketing provides the answers to burning questions in the marketing industry such as: does sex in advertising really help sell the products? or do warning labels on cigarette packs really help prevent people from smoking? The answer to these as well as a number of other questions discussed throughout the book are shocking, and indeed revolutionary. 

The book highlights how Neuromarketing has helped brands such as Dior sell their J'adore line of perfume, or how the belief in superstition has helped brands such as Nestle's KitKat become the phenomenon that it is in Japan today, or how the clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch has properly tapped into the other basic senses--other than sight--to attract their customers to their stores around the world. These, along with other interesting revelations, will be guaranteed to keep you reading on for hours on end. Light and engaging and written with the use of simple terminology (except for the different parts of the brain the author mentions throughout the books), this book will forever change a lot of what you think you know about the concepts of brands, branding, logos, and others in the field of marketing. 

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. I strongly recommend it not only to future marketers but also to aspiring entrepreneurs, as the insights you will get from this book will definitely be of great help should you want to start your own business someday. For P579, the valuable pieces of information from this book are definitely worth it.