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Oct 22, 2011

Mark rated it:

Summation: Lindstrom gets all excited about doing brain scans on consumers as they view advertisements and products.

Strike 1: Lindstrom seems to think that technology -- all technology -- is neutral. His example is that hammers can do nasty things but there is no need to outlaw, restrict or ban hammers. Fine, I agree. As long as we are talking about hammers, that is.

But when discussing companies doing fMRI scans on potential consumers to get at their instinctual, pre-r More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Malissa rated it:

As I got into the book, I kept envisioning a commerical that I have seen of late (one which I cannot remember the product being promoted - go figure!) It's the one where you initially see a smiling face of a young woman. As the camera pans around to the back of her head, you see what is making her smile, what perhaps she is thinking. I believe this commerical to sum up neuromarketing and where we can expect advertising to be in the not too distant future. Advertising gurus will ramp up their d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2008

Marcus rated it:

There are some crazy techniques being used in marketing and they will only get crazier, more intrusive and more subtly manipulative thanks to guys like Martin Lindstrom. He seems a little conflicted about what he does - on one hand he tries to come off as a consumer advocate, exposing marketing tricks so we can be aware of them, on the other he actively employs the same techniques in the companies he works with. He had me going back and forth about whether he is the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy.' More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2009

Kristen rated it:

This was absolutely the WORST book I've ever read. The guy has no idea what he is talking about and brags about his job and success throughout the book.

He claims that mirror neurons are responsible for our buying behaviour. There is no scientific evidence for this, and his scientific methods are sketchy, bordering illegal.

I just skimmed most of it because it was SO bad.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2008

Matt rated it:

I normally love books about consumer psychology ... but I stopped reading before the end of the first chapter. From the first page, the author seems more interested in convincing you how important he is than in conveying any substantive information. By page 16, I didn't care enough about the subject to keep going.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Richard rated it:

The only reason I gave this audio book 2 stars is that my sheer contempt for it kept me listening until the end. This is, without a doubt, the most useless book on marketing I have ever read.

It has no point.
The author contradicts himself all the time - sometimes just pages apart.
The conclusions drawn from the FMRI scans are often nonsensical. While the studies provide facts, the interpretation of those facts are easy to argue.

Seriously, I just wasted 4 odd hours of More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2009

Vicki rated it:

This was a really quick read, and very interesting. The author has done research using fMRI and SST -- two tests that show what's going on in the brain. It's called neuromarketing, and it's all about what we say as opposed to what we really think (and we usually don't know what we really think). Here is my favorite part of the book: "In ancient times, collecting was the exclusive province of the rich, but nowadays, people of all income levels acumulate everything from Barbie dolls and H More...

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Dec 15, 2011

Loy rated it:

"Tell me the answers to these questions.

Does sex or controversy push product sales?
Do we want to purchase products to stand out or copy people?
Do we like to purchase products to make us look younger or remind us of our childhood?
Does advice from professionals or superstition boost sales?
Do sexy models ads appeal more to same sex or to the opposite sex?

If you want to know the answers to these question, then having Martin Lindstromâs âBuy.ologyâ More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Loy rated it:

Tell me the answers to these questions.

Does sex or controversy push product sales?
Do we want to purchase products to stand out or copy people?
Do we like to purchase products to make us look younger or remind us of our childhood?
Does advice from professionals or superstition boost sales?
Do sexy models ads appeal more to same sex or to the opposite sex?

If you want to know the answers to these question, then having Martin Lindstrom’s ‘Buy.ology’ to your book More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Doug rated it:

The good: Interesting look at using fMRI and other new techniques to delve into how reveal insights into how we make buying decisions. Had no idea that Guinness's art of the perfect pour is not some timeless tradition, but a campaign launched in the 1990s to boost flagging sales.

The ritual of the slow pour is part of the pleasure of drinking a Guinness in the first place. But. . . this ritual did not come about by accident. In the time-choked cultured of the early 1990s, Guinness was fac

More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Nick rated it:

This was a nice and easy nonfiction read, seeming almost like a vacation after the intellectual beating offered by the likes of Steven Pinker and R. Douglas Fields. But that's faint praise, as this book excelled in ambition and authorial back-patting, but was pretty short on big ideas. The crux of the book is the emergence of neuromarketing, which involves using fMRI and other brain-scanning techniques as a means of truly understanding consumers' loves and hates, rather than just asking the co More...

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May 13, 2011

Ryan rated it:

Buyology.

The beginning 3 chapters of this book are a long disclaimer and sale job for EMRI based marketing research that can safely be skipped.

The correlation between branding and religion is quite interesting, and so is the idea of "creating rituals"...

Magic happens when people don't think.

Cult of Personality.

10 common pillars:
1. Sense of Belonging
2. A Clear Vision
3. Power Over Enemies (AAPL: Microsoft, RED:The Film Indu More...

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Feb 21, 2011

Dinah rated it:

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even review this book because a) it was awful, and b) I wanted to throttle the smug little billionaire consultant of an author three times a chapter, and why would I revisit that in a review? But this is the first book I've legitimately read, start to finish, since starting my crazy new jobs, and I guess that merits some words.

Words like: "ugh." And: "That's not how foreshadowing works. This is nonfiction." Honestly this might h More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2010

G N added it

Normally I will star a non-fiction book as well as write a review about it. The problem with Lindstrom's book is that it reads more like a fiction novel. Hence it doesn't receive stars.

If you can wade through the overblown prose (read author's sense of self-importance, borrowed deux ex machina and cliff-hanger endings to various chapters, all of which fizzle out along the way), Lindstrom actually has some sound advice for consumers!

If you value your purchasing sovereignty, More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2010

Stacy rated it:

I really wish I could find the desire to write reviews of books I actually liked, but that will happen on some other day than today.

Martin Lindstrom's book is like Freakonomics minus the solid academic and scientific background; like Malcolm Gladwell's books minus the compelling writing. I believe that Lindstrom, a self-proclaimed marketing genius, decided there was a huge market for pop psychology/social science in the book market and thought he was more than qualified to throw his More...

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Jun 26, 2010

Mike rated it:

Martin Lindstrom's Buy•ology is described as containing "findings from his ground-breaking three year multi-million-dollar neuromarketing study," and answers questions about "what truly influences our decisions" about what we buy.

Lindstrom sticks primarily (and rightly) to what he knows: branding and marketing. Those reading this book for insight into the world of neuromarketing will be disappointed.

The book's neuromarketing research backs up what is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 18, 2009

Sarah rated it:

What a fun and interesting read. This book is very much of a 'pop' book, designed and marketed to be a big seller. This might be just me, but the extent the book goes to to cater to mainstream audience is just over the top- sure, what you're presenting to me is definitely fascinating and most certainly forever changes the I see myself when I pick up a certain product of the shelf- but to remind me of that at the end of every chapter? Really? I just get the impression that the book has been very, More...

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Oct 21, 2009

Grace rated it:

This book was almost unreadable. I learned more about the author (he flies 300 days a year consulting for int'l mega corporations, he's older than he looks, he always wears black, etc) than about selling. In fact, he admits that much of what they thought they knew is wrong (if you accept that functional MRI works).

Suppose you do accept that fMRI does tell you which parts of the brain are active. An early chapter discussed a fMRI experiment in which smokers were shown warning label More...

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Jul 18, 2009

Audrey rated it:

Wasn't what I expected. There were some interesting things, so it was worth reading--and it's short and written on the level of the average joe so it doesn't take long to read. I had a hard time getting past Lindstrom's self-promotion. He's important and he made that point better than most of his other points. I'm not sure this "emerging technology" merits an actual book about it. His "evidence" was all based on a few tests, quotations from some very unofficial sources (I thi More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Sara rated it:

Interesting book about advertising, and the new field of "neuro-marketing". Using brain scans, they can determine which kinds of advertising are most effective, by seeing which parts of the brain become active. Remember "subliminal messages"? This is subliminal messaging to a whole new level, and much of it only registers subconsciously. For example, advertising becomes doubly effective when other senses are combined: adding smell, music to advertising makes it more engaging. More...

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May 28, 2009

Shane rated it:

Some quick & dishevelled points:

Lindstrom's "research" consists of op-eds, blogs, and NYT articles. He hasn't even read any of the books he cites, rather, he consults others' reviews thereof.

I counted 39 occasions in which Lindstrom boasts of basically having invented a new science -- neuromarketing --, and how his book will usher in "an almost Aristotelian shift in thinking." !!! (195)

Not quite. His book is embarrasingly bad, -- poor More...

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Apr 07, 2009

James rated it:

Given my enthusiasm for Oliver Sacks and some of Malcolm Gladwell's writings, one might presume Buyology would be the perfect blend of the two worlds.

One would be mistaken.

This book, although a worthwhile read, suffers from an overinflated sense of self-importance. Consider how Gladwell can say obvious things in such a low-key way that you take time to consider his arguments fully. This careful subtlety is lost on Lindstrom, who continually injects the book with referenc More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

I have a confession. Back when I had a TV-- as vapid, cloying, repetitive and shallow as it was--I watched every episode of America's Next Top Model. I know! What is wrong with me!?
Well, according to Buyology-- it wasn't my fault. It was just my brain. Smart marketers and brands can now use nuerotechnology to watch our brains lusting, yearning, self-doubting, and coveting all of those things that our rational minds tell us are dumb or too expensive or self-destructive (Marlboro, anyone?) More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 31, 2009

Tiny Pants rated it:

I challenge you to read this book and not want to smack the author upside the head with it. A self-styled (read: non-degreed) marketing consultant, Lindstrom reveals himself to be an unapologetic biological determinist, attempting to convince his reader that with the advent of "neuro-marketing" a new age dawns where qualitative and quantitative methods (such as focus groups and surveys) are no longer of any use to marketers. Why? Because, as he asserts repeatedly, "the brain doesn More...

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Mar 07, 2010

Hiidenuhma rated it:

Two stars is a bit low for this book, I did like it, but there were some things that made the reading experience a bit unpleasant.

For one, the narrative seemed to suffer from what I call the Da Vinci Code syndrome: A whole lot of hinting at upcoming plot-twists and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Eh, I just don't like that type of writing, it irritates me more than it interests me, and it definitely didn't suit the narrative of this book.

Secondly, the author se More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 29, 2008

Tom rated it:

Interesting book in the area of neuromarketing. He conducted a series of studies done on the mind concerning how advertising really affects us (or doesn't). While there were a number of fascinating studies done he seemed overly excited about them, and while there were a number of eye opening moments you have to seemingly sift through a whole bunch of stuff to finally get there.

I understand where he is coming from in his book however. It is about the whole new field of neuromarke More...

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Feb 28, 2009

Jake rated it:

So what do we buy? Why do we buy what we buy? if you have ever thought about uestions like
Does sex sell?
Subliminal advertising sell?
Senses influence our purchases?
Do compaines create rituals?
the answers are listed.
Below a snippet of what I found interesting.

Sexual stimuli interfer with the Ads effects on the consumer. Men often times spend time staring at women that they bypass brand names and logos. one case found that not even ten percent of men More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Tracy rated it:

The parts about whether certain advertising techniques work were interesting enough, but the author takes the unexamined approach to advertising--it's all good, and we should just accept that it's taking over everything we see and do. For a living he helps companies come up with gimmicks to get us to buy their products. (Can we say skeazy?) It was less psychology and more sociological, specific to developed, consumer-driven societies. It was very one-sided like advertising is the thing that More...

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Dec 10, 2008

Robert rated it:

As Martin Lindstrom explains in the Introduction, he set out to understand "what's going on in our brains that makes us chose one brand over another - what information passes through our brain's filter and what information doesn't -- well that would be key to truly building brands of the future." After completing a three-year, multimillion-dollar "journey" with 2,081 volunteers he enlisted (from America, England, Germany, Japan, and the Republic of China), he shares what are More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Lynh rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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