Book Review - Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

As the result of one of the greatest market experiments in history, and an authentic insight into our modern mass culture, Buyology can be of remarkable interest for pretty much anyone, from professional marketers to pathological consumers.

“Nowadays, most brands are almost the same as the keys of a hotel room; people forget where they put them even before getting to the room for the first time.” Every year, approximately 21000 new brands are created, of which around 52% fail. For individual products, the statistics get even worse, roughly reaching the 75% mark of failures in the first year.

After observing figures like these, the author of Buyology, Martin Lindstrom, decided to investigate what was the difference between a total fiasco and a successful market campaign. Differently from what had been previously done, however, Lindstrom perceived that not all marketing theories worked as expected. Consequently, he decided that he would go directly to the main source of our desires and choices; he would go directly to our brains.

As a result of this rather extraordinary task, one of the greatest and broadest market experiments was performed. Costing seven million dollars, and taking three years, the investigation concerned the use of brain scanners to observe how our brains respond to different marketing strategies. The outcome of this extended research project led to the creation of Buyology, which presents the conclusions that were taken from the experiment, together with plenty of examples of past market campaigns that confirm what is said.

“We may think we know why we do the things we do – but a much closer look into the brain tells us otherwise”. With this simple sentence, it is already possible to perceive the principal idea that is expressed throughout the entire book. By comparing the findings of the experiment with what people said about their opinions, it was observed that, in most cases, people say exactly the opposite to what their subconscious minds think. This, therefore, explains the failure of so many marketing strategies, as these are mostly based on tests that go for people’s opinion, and not for their brain’s.

Structurally, the book is divided into eleven chapters, which have the objective of exploring different aspects of marketing. From the various interesting facts and thoughts that are discussed, there are, for example, the popular myths of the use of subliminal messages and the effectiveness of sex in advertisements.

After all, the book truly justifies the nomination of Lindstrom as one of the 100 most influential people in 2009. Instead of just following the traditional practices that are taught around the world, Lindstrom decided to do his own research and study the most fundamental origins of our buying behaviors. At the end, together with the revolutionary results that were observed, Buyology also exposed the existence of a mass culture society, in which it is impossible to escape from things such as branding and marketing.

BUY-OLOGY PRECIS

Nowadays, most brands are simply like keys of a hotel room; people forget where they put them even before entering the room for the first time. Every year, approximately 21000 new brands are created and around 52% of them fail. After observing statistics like this one, the author of the book came to the conclusion that there had to be something wrong in the way market researches were conducted. He saw that there were too many failures and that none of them should have happened according to market researches. As a result, the author decided that he would start his own research project to investigate the 'mysteries' of our minds and buying behaviors. He wanted to understand how marketing techniques and strategies affect our brains and how influential those effects are to our decisions. The following paragraphs talk about how the test was carried out, the results of each test, and the logic behind them.

The tests and the research that are mentioned in the book occurred over a time period of three years, from 2004 to 2007. It costed around $7 millions dollars and it was sponsored by a group of 8 multinational companies. The experiment was completely based on science and it comprised a team of 200 researches, 10 professors, an ethics committee and thousands of subjects from around the globe. All of the tests were made with the use of fMRI or SST machines. Both are usually used by medics to make scans of the brain and to understand what areas are activated under different stimuli.

The basic idea of these tests were to understand what truly generates our buying behaviors. By directly studying what happens in our brains, the author found a way to avoid many of the biases and external influences that happen in traditional market researches. I "We may think we know why we do the things we do - but a much closer look into the brain tells us otherwise". An example can be the test that was made with the smokers

[2]The first test that was made measured the effectiveness of product placement in movies, television and other medias. Over the last years, people have been more and more exposed to commercials and information. As a result, we adapted to it by creating a certain filter to what we accept or just ignore. In 1965 a consumer remembered 34% of ads, in 1990 it fell to 8%. As a way to 'force' the audiences to see their commercials and products without the creation of that barrier, advertisers started to use product placement. This consists of exposing the products and brands during the show, instead of in the commercials time. Some examples of successful product placements are the one with Hershey's Reese's Pieces that was done in E.T. (sales tripled) or the one with Top Gun, which increased the recruitment of air force and navy by 500%!

For their test, they decided to compare the effectiveness of product placement of the three main sponsors of the show American Idol. The three companies were Coca-cola, Cingular and Ford, and they all had different advertising approaches. At the end, they found out that product placement worked extremely well when the products were related to the storyline of the show. The products were successfully remembered by the people, and they actually inhibited the memories of other brands. The only brand that was not successful was Ford, which was also the only one that did not advertise during the show . The people knew that everything was just a commercial and they responded by simply ignoring it.

[3]Mirror Neurons are neurons that are activated when we observe specific actions that have some significance to ourselves. These are the responsible for people moving their arms when their team make touchdowns, or for us crying when our heroes suffer in movies. The mirror neurons basically work by allowing us feel what we see and by allowing us to imitate other people. This connects to our buying behavior as mirror neurons are activated when we see people with different products. These neurons create thoughts of necessity and 'love' for new products, and we end up thinking that we must be equal to the others. At the same time, it is due to the mirror neurons that we are able to look at mannequins and famous people and think that we can be like them if we purchase a certain product. Examples of the influence of mirror neurons may be the popularization of the Apple white earphones or of games such as guitar hero and The Sims. This connects to merchants of cool since it gives an explanation for our constant tentative to be cool, to have new lifestyles and to follow brands. We just want to be like our idols.

[4]The fourth chapter of the book talks about the existence and power of subliminal messages. Subliminal messages are any messages that are registered below our level of consciousness. Our brains perceive them, but we don’t. In most times, subliminal messages appear as ways to instigate us to consume a certain product or to make allusions to sex. An example of a subliminal message that became really popular was the one included in Bush's campaign video against the bureocRATS.

An experiment made in Harvard University found out that subliminal messages do work. People were displayed positive and negative words while playing a videogame, and their performance improved in when positive words were shown. We must not forget, however, that not all kinds of subliminal messages are extremely implicit. If we pay attention to the world around us, we will see hundreds and hundreds of allusions to brands or other unrelated ideas. It was thinking in this kind of subliminal massage that the author decided to make another test. This time they tested how the colors of F1 and NASCAR cars influenced the people. At the end, they found out that people who smoke are actually more susceptible to start smoking after seeing one of those cars then after seeing the logos of the cigarette companies. With that, we can see how corporations are becoming able to dangerously influence our thoughts about certain products and brands without caring about the ethical and social implications of their actions.

[5]Rituals and Superstitions have great influences over our behaviors. In our society, we are in constant contact with rituals and superstitions. These appear in the sports' world, in our everyday lives, and, why not, in our buying behaviors too . Rituals are responsible for giving feelings of stability, control and of being part of a group. In our world, products may differentiate themselves by creating rituals involving their consumption. This can relate to 'the right way' of drinking a beer or to the right type of person that can consume a certain product. Nevertheless, after all, nothing really changes, and everyone is just trying to consume images and lifestyles instead of just the product. Guiness - "good thing come to those who wait"

In the case of superstition, even though there might be some disagreement, it is almost a fact that the majority of the people is subconsciously affected by Superstitions. An example of that is the fact that the number of car crashes increased by 32%and 51% in Germany and London, respectively, during the Friday the 13th. Consequently, associations of brands to superstitions may also work as a way to subconsciously make the consumers like a product and buy more of it. KitKat in Japan

[6]Similarly to superstitions, religions also play an important role in our lives. With this thought in mind, the author decided to make a test to compare how we react to religious symbols and to brands. The experiment ended up demonstrating that people have the exact same reactions to religious icons as to powerful brands. Religions and brands are based on really similar ideals and principles: Sense of belonging, clear visions, power over enemies, sensory appeal, story telling, grandeur, evangelism, mystery and rituals. This fact allows us to see how brands have become important to our lives and how society has changed over the past years.

[7] Why do we buy a product of one specific brand instead of another without even thinking of it? The answer to this question lies on the existence of Somatic Markers. These are basically shortcuts that are formed in our brains based on our past experiences of pleasure and punishment, and they are responsible for subconsciously connecting our emotions and memories to specific reactions. Association of German cars to safety and trustfulness. Everyday, we manufacture new somatic markers when we have surprises or shocks. In addition, one of the main objectives of advertisement is exactly to try to create somatic markers related to their brands. It is because of somatic markers that advertisers often try to shock their audience.

Somatic markers also explain why advertisers have been trying to use fear as a way to sell their products. They are basing themselves on our past experiences of punishment to try to convince our brains that we will suffer if we do not consume their products. A good example of this action can be how drugs are advertised.

· SELLING TO OUR SENSES

· Companies often invest a lot in visual commercials and logos. But what about sound and smell?

· The test that was made compared how people reacted to smell and pictures .They found out that the smells activated the same areas as sight. When we smells something, images come to our minds.

· Smell is one of the most basic senses and we associate it with memories andexperiences. Advertisers know it and try to create it.

· Every company hastheir own smells. Some examples are the smells of new cars, baby powder or “Just made hamburger”.

· Touch was also proven to work

· People thought that a lighter remote control was broken. People need to feel the clothes before buying them

· Color creates Somatic Markers and attract the people’s attention

· “Seul International color expo” found out that color increases brand recognition by 80%

· Sound and Jingles cause us to make associations (subconsciously) and they affect our emotions (buying behavior).

· In a test similar to the smell one, they found out that sounds together with images made people pay more attention, remember more and feel more pleasure.

· Only the Nokia tune was bad – Associations to work and bad feelings (shows that sound really affect our emotions)

SEX IN ADVERTISEMENT

Over the last years, sex has been increasingly used in advertising. But does it really sell?

· Here the book creates some contradiction

· Firstly we see that some companies think that it only distracts people

· When talking about sex in advertising, the most famous brand is Calvin Klein

· When they started, there was a lot of controversy. In the next years, they even made commercials knowing that they would have to take them off.

· This Shocked the people. This was the responsible for making the brand more popular +image of cool

· - Beauty

· It was also proven to not work

· Tentative of brands to create commercials with ‘normal’ people à Apple, Dove, Reality Shows

· CONCLUSION

· NEVERTHELESS, these may alsowork due to mirror neurons. People see the models and sex and their mirror neurons make them think that they can be like that. All about creating dreams à Over the last years, however, people society is valuing happiness more.

· Will get worse and worse

This was the union of science and advertising. Marketing has always been completely uncertain, but we found a way to reach certainty.

· Many companies do it: Microsoft, Dior, Unilever

· Traditional marketing simply does not work

· In the future, more and more companies will use the fears of the people: the will make them think that they are losing something. Branding is going to reach unseen levels: Saki Saba prices went up by 600% after it became a brand + 24h human brands

Advertising is increasing and becoming more powerful. The only way to be safe is to lock ourselves in dark rooms.

BUY-OLOGY

Introduction

- The majority of the brands today are like the keys of a hotel room; you forget where you put them even before entering the room for the first time.

- The author wanted to know why exactly some brands work and others do not

o He knows that most decisions are subconscious

o In addition, in most cases, we may think something completely different than what our brains actually think. Sometimes, even though we may not feel attracted for something, we may continue watching it because of our brains. This explains the failures and huge imprecision of the old-school market researches

o THE AUTHOR WANTED TO GO DIRECTLY TO OUR BRAINS TO UNDERSTAND PRECISELY WHY WE BUY, ANALYSING MYTHS , BELIEFS AND “THE SUBCONSCIOUS FORCES THATMOTIVATE US TO BUY”.

Chapter 1 – Explanation of the tests, Self-Marketing, Some Info and examples

THE TEST + BACKGROUND

- Started in 2004 - 3 years long and costing around $7million dollars (provided by 8 multinational companies)

- Thousands of subjects from around the globe, two hundred researchers, 10 professors and doctors and an ethics committee

- Author is a global branding expert

- He uses fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), which is able to demonstrate the presence of oxygenated blood (it shows the regions of the brain that are in use). SST is an apparatus that measures electromagnetic waves from the brain at the time.

INFO +EXAMPLES

- Traditional Research does not work anymore: “because our rational minds, flooded with cultural biases rooted in our tradition, upbringing, and a whole lot of other subconscious factors, assert a powerful but hidden influence over the choices we make…We may think we know why we do the things we do – but a much closer look into the brain tells us otherwise”

o Even though we think we are not lying, there are thousands of subconscious facts that pass through our brains. Those involve the society, what we know, what we want and our situation

- HAVE HOW MUCH WAS SPENT ON MARKET RESEARCH in 2010

- 21000 NEW BRANDS PA. à 52% OF THEM AND 75% OF INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTS FAIL. He wanted to understand such failures and saw that his research could have some good and useful outcomes.

- Example: Test made with the smokers. Basically … Most of them said that they are really affected by the antismoking signs in packs (Society makes them conscientiously think that). The fMRI brain scan actually showed that when they see the pictures, the region of their brains that is responsible for addictions lighted up. In other words, the pictures actually stimulated them!

Chapter 2 – Product Placement

- He starts with the fact that, over the last years, there has been such an increase in the number of commercials and information, that we just simply ignore most of them. In addition, people do not want to take risks and there is lack of creativity.

o In 1965 a consumer remembered 34% of the ads, in 1990 it fell to 8%!

- The main point of product placement is that the people remember the brands and products, since this is a fundamental factor that defines the choices and buying behaviors of consumers

- He gives us some examples of product placement:

o It always occurred in movies but the principal happening involved the film ET. It had Hershey’s Reese’s pieces and its sales tripled after the release of the movie.

o Another example is the fact that Top Gun increased the number of airforce and navy recruitment by 500 percent!!!!!

- He wants to know how it works

THE TEST

- To test the effectiveness of product placement, they use the case of American Idol. It has 3 main sponsors; Coke, Ford and Cingular Wireless. Coca-cola and Cingular have 30 second commercials and also advertise within the show. Ford only has the commercials.

o Findings:

§ The subjects clearly remembered Cingular and Coke more.

§ They memories of the enemy brands (Pepsi and Verizon) were actually inhibited

§ Coke ws way more remembered than Cingular

§ The excessiveness of images of Coke actually made the people remember less about ford also – They saturated the people’s memory

§ Coke was included into the storyline and it appeared everywhere in a natural way. This explains the success of ET. Product placement works really well if the product is properly associated to the storyline and if it makes sense. People should not think that it is just a commercial. (this creates a barrier in their brains)

- There is not muuuuch detail about the discoveries and logic

Chapter 3 – Mirror Neurons and the willingness to be like the rest

- Mirror neurons are neurons that light up when we observe certain actions that have some significance to us.

o These are the responsible for us moving our arms when our teams make touchdowns or for us crying when our heroes suffer in the movies. The mirror neurons work by allowing us to feel what we see.

o In addition, these neurons also explain why we often imitate the others behaviors. When we see someone with something different we tend to want to buy that thing

o “If I had that product, I would be lke that person”. This explains what we learnt about buying images and attitudes.

- Example of Steve Jobs: He perceived that everyone wanted to copy everyone and have those ‘cool’ white headphones

- Example with opening boxes: Now there are actual websites that show people opening boxes à The other people are able to feel the joy and excitement that they are seeing.

- Mirror neurons help us to connect to realities that are not our à Guitar hero or The sims

Chapter 4 – Subliminal Messages

- Subliminal messages are any massages that are registered below our level of consciousness. Our brains perceive them, but we don’t. In most times, subliminal messages appear to instigate us to consume something or to give us ideas that cannot be opnly said.

- There are many cases of subliminal messages in the past and they still happen a lot nowadays. In most cases, they appear with relations to sex or they are flashing logos

- Example: In his campaign, when he talks about Al-Gore a text appears ‘rats’.

Harvard Test

- A test made in Harvard found out that subliminal messages actually work: Displaying positive images words improved the performance of people in a game by 10%.

He also talks about another kind of subliminal messaging, the one that we see in our everyday life

o Firstly he mentions the fact that perfumes are more popular depending on where they are made

o The fact with F1, NASCAR and cigarettes: The cars are specifically painted to resemble the logos of Camel and Marlboro. The result is that the people’s brain actually end up associating the cars and colors with the products. As a result, the carving spots are actually more activated than the logos would do. SM are more powerful than logos

Chapter 5 – Rituals and superstitions that affect our buying behavior

- Starts by explaining how Guinness created a ritual involving its beer à “Good things come to those who wait”

- How Rituals and Superstitions are part of our lives

o Sports

o Crashes increased by 32 and 51% in Germany and London in the Friday 13^th

- Even though we think it is ridiculous, our subconscious minds until think of it

How it they relate to our buying behaviors

- Rituals give us stability in this fast moving world. In addition, they help to make us part of a group

o We are creatures of habit

o Once we get used to something, it is hard to change (phones of different brands)

- Another Ritual corresponds to brand obsession and collections

o These give us feelings of control and safety

Chapter 6 – Faith, Religion and Brands

- To test the relation between religions and brands, they made test to analyze the subjects’ reactions to powerful brands and religious icons

- THE RESULT WAS THAT THE REACTIONS WERE THE SAME

- How religions and brands work

The basic pillars of religion are sense of belonging, clear visions, power over enemies, sensory appeal, storytelling, grandeur, evangelism, symbols, mystery and rituals.

o Sense of belonging appears in societies and groups associated with brands

o Clear visions correspond to the companies’ missions and the ‘objectives’/images of brands

o Power over enemies happen in the disputes between brands. When was the last time we heard a discussion about Macs and Windows

o …ETC…

The book attempts to make a scientific approach to how we behave, why we buy and how brands affect us. The book shows many different aspects of our buying behaviors and we must think that when we buy, we are being influenced by many of them.

What is said may sound a bit unrelated but they are all factors that influence how we buy

Chapter 7 – Somatic Markers

- Why do we pick one product over another? Or why do we buy one brand of cookies instead of another?

o The answer lies on the existence of Somatic Markers

- SOMETIC MARKERS are a kind of shortcut that are formed in our brains based on past experiences of pleasure of punishment. These markers subconsciously connect experiences and emotions to specific reactions

o An example of it could be the association of German cars with safety and trustfulness.

- Every day we manufacture new somatic markers in our brains. This usually occurs when there are surprises or shocks.

o Advertisers use it, and this explains why we usually remember the weirdest and most ‘attractive ‘commercials/places (color, weirdness,etc)

- Another common somatic marker is the one based on fear

o Advertisers based themselves on our past experiences of punishment to try to convince us that we will suffer if we don’t consume a certain product

o Medicine. Increase in consumption of Centrum

Chapter 8 – Selling to our Senses

- Companies often invest a lot in visual commercials and logos. But what about sound and smell?

- The test that was made compared how people reacted to smell and pictures .They found out that the smells activated the same areas as sight. When we smells something, images come to our minds.

- Smell is one of the most basic senses and we associate it with memories andexperiences. Advertisers know it and try to create it.

o Every company hastheir own smells. Some examples are the smells of new cars, baby powder or “Just made hamburger”.

- Touch was also proven to work

o People thought that a lighter remote control was broken. People need to feel the clothes before buying them

- Color creates Somatic Markers and attract the people’s attention

o “Seul International color expo” found out that color increases brand recognition by 80%

- Sound and Jingles cause us to make associations (subconsciously) and they affect our emotions (buying behavior).

- In a test similar to the smell one, they found out that sounds together with images made people pay more attention, remember more and feel more pleasure.

o Only the Nokia tune was bad – Associations to work and bad feelings (shows that sound really affect our emotions)

Chapter 9 – Neuromarketing and predicting the Future

- Nowadays, thousands of brands fail because of the inaccuracies of market studies. Can Neuromarketing predict if brands/ideas will work or not.

- What we say about products does not correspond to what we truly (subconsciously) think [mentioned above].

- They tested three shows that were not popular in the US but that were broadcasted in other places

o At the end, the people actually said that they would watch the most unsuccessful shows. Their brains, however, showed more engagement to the least popular shows (which were also the ones that got more successful)

Chapter 10 – Sex in Advertising

Over the last years, sex has been increasingly used in advertising. But does it really sell?

- Here the book creates some contradiction

- Firstly we see that some companies think that it only distracts people

- When talking about sex in advertising, the most famous brand is Calvin Klein

o When they started, there was a lot of controversy. In the next years, they even made commercials knowing that they would have to take them off.

o This Shocked the people. This was the responsible for making the brand more popular +image of cool

- - Beauty

o It was also proven to not work

§ Tentative of brands to create commercials with ‘normal’ people à Apple, Dove, Reality Shows

- NEVERTHELESS, these may alsowork due to mirror neurons. People see the models and sex and their mirror neurons make them think that they can be like that. All about creating dreams à Over the last years, however, people society is valuing happiness more.

- Will get worse and worse

Chapter 11 – Conclusion – Brand New Day

This was the union of science and advertising. Marketing has always been completely uncertain, but we found a way to reach certainty.

- Many companies do it: Microsoft, Dior, Unilever

- Traditional marketing simply does not work

- In the future, more and more companies will use the fears of the people: the will make them think that they are losing something. Branding is going to reach unseen levels: Saki Saba prices went up by 600% after it became a brand + 24h human brands

Advertising is increasing and becoming more powerful. The only way to be safe is to lock ourselves in dark rooms.