Book: Buyology

Book: Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

In this book, jet-setting international marketing consultant Martin Lindstrom talks about what he’s learned by using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and SST (Steady State Topography) brain scans to look at what regions of the brain “light up” when people interact with different marketing messages.

By you read this book, you’ll learn not only his research techniques, but some of the tricks that large companies use in their retail environments to make their customers more predisposed to making the decision to buy more.

The first chapter or so, when someone with a marketing background is trying to discuss the science of what’s going on is a little hard to read. I particularly stumbled over:

In other words, fMRI measures the amount of oxygenated blood throughout the brain and can pinpoint an area as small as one millimeter (that’s 0.03937 of an inch).

Does someone who quotes metric to imperial conversions to 5 decimal places really have anything to offer? It turns out that the book does have some insights that are worth pushing through the first chapter. Does using sex in advertising help to sell products, or is it just a distraction, being memorable only in itself? The answer may surprise you.

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