BuyologyTruth and Lies About Why We Buy

Martin Lindstrom

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Summary

Buyology

By: Martin Lindstrom

Narrarated by: Don Leslie, Martin Lindstrom

Based on the single largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, Buyology reveals surprising truths about what attracts our attention and captures our dollars. Among the long-held assumptions and myths Buyology confronts:

• Sex doesn’t sell – people in skimpy clothing and provocative poses don’t persuade us to buy products.

• Despite government bans, subliminal advertising is ubiquitous — from bars to supermarkets to highway billboards.

• Color can be so iconic that the sight of the robin’s egg blue of a certain famous jewelry brand significantly raises women’s heart rates.

• Companies shamelessly borrow from religion and ritual — like the ritual, made up by a bored American bartender, of drinking a Corona with a lime — to seduce our interest.

• “Cool” brands, like iPods, trigger our mating instincts.

The fact is, so much of what we thought we knew about why we buy is wrong. Drawing on a three-year, 7 million dollar, cutting-edge brain scan study of over 2000 people from around the world, marketing guru Martin Lindstrom’s revelations will captivate anyone who’s been seduced —or turned off— by marketers relentless efforts to win our loyalty, our money and our minds.

Packed with entertaining stories about how we respond to such well-known products and companies as Marlboro, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, Buyology is a fascinating tour into the mind of today’s consumer.

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Audiobook Information
EDITOR'S PICK // New York Times Best Seller
  • Edition: Unabridged
  • Author: Martin Lindstrom (See All Books)
  • Date Released: Oct 21, 2008
  • Publisher: Random House Audio
  • Genre: Business & Economics, Psychology

Total File Size: 202 MB (6 files) Total Length: 7 Hours, 22 Minutes

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Allison Block

eMusic Contributor

10.21.08
Martin Lindstrom, Buyology
2008 | Label: Random House Audio

The science of why we buy
Why, oh why, do we buy what we buy? Does a pretty face in an ad make us more prone to purchase? Or do we plunk down the plastic because a product is cool? Marketing expert Lindstrom taps into the research of neuroscientists to address these questions, oft pondered by business types and academics alike. He discusses the results of brain-scan studies and delivers crackling anecdotes about everything from mirror neurons to dopamine, the pleasure-producing chemical that's released in our brains when we see something we like. It turns out dopamine can indeed make us "dopey," leading us to spend money on that shiny digital camera or sparkling diamond watch before we think it through.

Lindstrom's commentary on consumer behavior ranges from the predictable to the unexpected (did you know, for instance, that sex doesn't always sell?). He's not bothered by the fact that marketers might manipulate the public in irresponsible ways. Pop culture (big surprise!) is a critical conduit for swaying customers to spend. After Tom Cruise sported Ray-Bans in the 1983 hit movie, Risky Business, sales of the shades rose 50 percent. Narrator Don Leslie has such a rich, reassuring tone, he could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. His voice may be familiar to some; he's a veteran on-air narrator who's done lots of movie trailers, too. In this smooth, sonorous reading, facts and figures glide gently off Leslie's tongue.

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Fuzzy Science ...

keithpeter

The conclusions of the 'scientific research' that Lindstrom conducts in the development of this book are flimsy at best, and wouldn't stand a chance against pier review. The sensible observations he does make are sheer common sense (oh gee, the more senses an advertisement appeals to, the more memorable it is?!? Who'da thunk!

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