Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy - Hardcover

Lindstrom, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385523882 ISBN 13: 9780385523882

Publisher: Doubleday, 2008

Synopsis

How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them?

In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom 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. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his finding:

Gruesome health warnings on cigarette packages not only fail to discourage smoking, they actually make smokers want to light up.


Despite government bans, subliminal advertising still surrounds us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves.

"Cool” brands, like iPods trigger our mating instincts.

Other senses – smell, touch, and sound - are so powerful, they physically arouse us when we see a product.

Sex doesn't sell. In many cases, people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses not only fail to persuade us to buy products - they often turn us away .

Companies routinetly copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars.

Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill.

About this title

From the Publisher:

New research shows how we really make buying decisions

From the Back Cover:

Why did most people who took the 'Pepsi challenge' say they preferred Pepsi but then carried on buying Coca-Cola?
Why do the majority of anti-smoking campaigns inadvertently encourage people to smoke?
Why does the scent of melons help sell electronic products?

If you're bewildered by these questions, then Buy-ology will make everything clear. Written by one of the world's top branding gurus, and drawing on state-of-the-art research, it shows why we don't always buy things for the reasons we think we do.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0385523882
• ISBN 13: 9780385523882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 241