Buyology of the Brain, Part II

In "Buyology," Martin Lindstrom sets out to foretell the future of marketing. He focuses on the science of neuro imaging as one that reveals all the secrets of consumer behavior. Does sex really sell? Will subliminal advertising work? Does good branding create a kind of religious experience for consumers?

He thinks neuroimaging has the answers. But in his fascination with this nascent science, he misses a point he could have learned from any humanities major: people like stories that mean something to them. Companies that craft effective stories that make their goods and services mean something to people will do better than those that can't.

This is not to discount the book. I was skeptical of it in my initial post on Buyology. But Lindstrom's written a nice bit of pop science â€" this is not the kind of book about neuroscience that makes your head hurt. He smoothly explains things like mirror neurons, and different parts of the brain, such as those that seem linked to behaviors like craving, things that might be useful to marketers. He does sometimes veer off in odd directions â€" he spends a chunk of the book musing about the relationship between religion and branding, and seems to think good marketing achieves a kind of fetish status for a product or service, giving it a supernatural hold on us. Frankly, his anthropology is not very good. But he has an acolyte's enthusiasm: "Science is hard fact, the final word," he gushes towards the end. "Marketers and advertisers, on the other hand, have spent over a century throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it will stick."

In fact, neuromarketing is, as even he acknowledges at the very end, "in its infancy." Today's best tools still don't tell us very much about the brain. And it seems like many of his brain imaging studies simply confirmed what we already know, thanks to research in fields like sociology, psychology and behavioral economics. But his book should start to change that. He has some very interesting claims. His research suggests logos and direct advertising messages actually cause our brains to block or forget those messages. It also suggests that sexy messages can fail miserably in many cases. Still, from a hard science perspective, all Lindstrom has for now is a set of intriguing hypotheses that others will need to test.

Companies will be wise to test it. If Lindstrom is correct, neuroimaging should replace focus groups and product tests. There are no guarantees that it will help companies create hit products â€" far too many variables beyond consumer desire affect buying decisions, especially in downturn that could see consumers become less interested, and less capable, of acquiring stuff. But at worst it will be an effective complement to the techniques of sociometrists such as Sandy Pentland, whose uses much broader, real-world data sets to get at what's on our subconscious mind (see Picking up on Sandy Pentland's "Honest Signals.")
And if Lindstrom's hypothesis is correct, companies can use neuromarketing to eliminate many, perhaps all, stupid product launches, improve their advertising, completely rethink how they use logos and other overt branding messages, and sell more efficiently.

Some questions for you to think about, that may help you decide whether "Buyology" is worth a read:

Do you think effective branding needs to create a religious experience around a product or service?

Should you junk your logo and other overt brand messages, because subliminal advertising is the future?

How come sex doesn't always sell?

Will neuromarketing create an unfair advantage for companies, helping them turn consumers into mere puppets?

Next page: A brief review of Buyology.
[Image: GeekGirly, Creative Commons 2.o]

Title: Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy Author: Martin Lindstrom
Pages: 240
Price: $24.95
Type: Marketing/science
Theme: Neuromarketing is the future, praise God.
Who should read: Marketing and sales executives, CEOs, product developers, strategists, futurists.
Big Think Breakdown: A provocative book with intriguing and sometimes tantalizing claims, Buyology tries to one-up Gladwell and gets close, though it sometimes feels like there's a man off behind the curtain, pulling levers.

Checks: Lindstrom tells a good story, much like the marketing campaigns he admires most. He's creative, and he's got cutting edge research to back his provocative claims about long-held assumptions of how to market goods and services. He does a nice job making the science understandable.

Peeves: You don't get to see very much about his research. He conflates good branding with religion. His sheer enthusiasm for his argument sometimes leads him into naïve assertions. Seasoned marketers will want to skip to the part of each chapter where he talks about his research.

Quote: "--neuromarketing will become the primary tool companies use to predict the success or failure of their products."