Book Review of Martin Lindstrom's Buyology

How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong

May 23, 2009 Amy Goldstein

Martin Lindstrom pioneers the use of neuroscience to investigate consumer "Buyology" - the subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive purchasing decisions.

Danish-born Martin Lindstrom is a global brand expert, brand futurist, and best-selling author. However, it is his groundbreaking application of neuroscience to marketing (neuromarketing) that earned him a spot on TIME magazine’s list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009. Published in 2008, Buyology is a summary of Lindstrom’s revolutionary three-year neuromarketing study (conducted 2004-7) and its implications for the future of retail and advertising.

Using Neuroscience to Understand Consumer Behavior

Lindstrom observed that traditional market research techniques, such as surveys and focus groups, were inadequate predictors of product performance. People tend to be poor reporters of their own behavior because subconscious factors “assert a powerful but hidden influence over the choices we make.” To gain insight into the mind of the average consumer, Lindstrom employed two of the most advanced brain-scanning instruments available - the fMRI and SST (steady-state typography) – to monitor and measure the brain activity of over 2,000 volunteers in response to products and advertisements.

What Neuroscience Reveals About Consumers, Brands, and Marketing

Based on the results of his studies, Lindstrom draws the following conclusions:

• Cigarette warning labels actually encourage smoking.
• Product placement only works if the brand has a logical and integral function in the storyline.
• People purchase goods and services that they think will help them be more like the people they admire.
• Subliminal advertising works, and may be more powerful than a logo.
• Products enjoy greater brand loyalty if they are associated with a ritual or superstition.
• People react to strong brands in the same way that they react to religious icons.
• Advertisements that appeal to multiple senses are more effectual than those that rely on vision alone.
• Sex and beauty don’t always sell.

Buyology Doesn’t Live Up To Its Own Hype

Unfortunately, Buyology does not convincingly prove that “everything we believe about why we buy is wrong.” Lindstrom bases his claims on the observed brain activity of his volunteers. However, the meaning of this activity was interpreted by the author and his team of researchers, who clearly favored particular outcomes. Furthermore, it is possible that certain test conditions, such as the use of well-known brands in experiments, biased the results.

Lindstrom relies on anecdotal rather than qualitative evidence to present his findings, and it is easy to imagine him putting a spin on his own product. This is not to say that Lindstrom’s methodology and claims are indeed flawed. But while his research certainly merits attention, without further experimentation or scholarly review, it remains inconclusive.

What Buyology Does Have To Offer

Although less shocking and definitive than Lindstrom believes it to be, Buyology does reveal much about what goes on in our subconscious minds and into our decision-making processes. The book is also filled with interesting trivia and behind-the-scenes secrets (such as how Reese’s Pieces ended up in E.T. or why people drink Corona with lime). Moreover, Lindstrom’s astute analysis of the success or failure of real products, as well as his predictions for the future of marketing are of great interest.

Thanks to Lindstrom’s creative flair and sense of humor, Buyology is much more entertaining than academic. However, his penchant for figurative language and self-promotion (the book ends with a directive to visit Lindstrom’s website) is gratuitous, distracting, and off-putting. Nevertheless, the use of neuroscience to understand and influence human behavior is likely to expand in the future. Buyology may not be the final, or best-written word on neuromarketing, but it is a worthwhile introduction for anyone fascinated with or concerned by this emerging field.

Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong. Random House, 2008. ISBN: 9781847940124. Paperback, 240 pages.

The copyright of the article Book Review of Martin Lindstrom's Buyology in Reference Books is owned by Amy Goldstein. Permission to republish Book Review of Martin Lindstrom's Buyology in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Buyology