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I selected for this for my bookclub read and it was loved by everyone. Not many people are aware of how marketing/business development works. This book was a beginners glimpse into that world. Over all, marketing campaign/stories can be just as intriging, fascinating, manuipulating, interesting and "I can't believe that", as any NY Times bestseller. Created an awesome discussion.
But how can Lindstrom jump to such general conclusions, if the test did not include non-smokers. Very self-indulgent and not as scientific as it claims to be.For example, the brain scans that show that smokers' addiction center turns on when they see the images of death on the packages makes Lindstrom jump to the conclusion, that this kind of prevention-advertising actually induces people to buy more cigarettes. The experiment was only done with smokers, who probably have some sort of conditioning and who relate those images to the sensation they experience when smoking. It says nothing about the impact these images might have on non-smokers and especially people in the tender age of being potential smokers (teenagers). If you're seriously interested in the irrational, read Dan Ariely's Predicatbly Irrational or Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.
Through this 3 year and $7 million study, sales professionals have the ability to understand why people buy what they buy and just as importantly what they do not buy.Lindstrom presents a powerful and complex subject in a fairly non-complex read. From Lindstrom's research, this message actually encourages people to smoke not discourage them.
Martin Lindstrom has done the same in this book to separate fact from fiction. Sales success is very much dependent upon buying success.
Sherlock Holmes understood how to take the complex and see the simplicity. He compares this data to current acceptable marketing and sales beliefs.One of my most favorite examples is the message on cigarette products and how they are hazardous to your health.
Yet, much has been written both truthfully and untruthfully about why people buy. Using brain research and technology, Lindstrom shows neurological evidence about how the mind makes decisions specific to buying or not buying something.
His research spans several geographic regions as well as includes a diversity of testing population. For those in sales, understanding the why behind the purchasing decision is necessary if they wish to increase sales and be The Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits
The author goes off on an odd religion/marketing tanget that doesn't really mesh well or prove anything. It is interesting to consider how what we really prefer and what we SAY we prefer can be very different. It is also interesting to think about how the messages we see affect our desires (we are reminded by things and we use our own associations to decide how we process the information, we don't take away the message that the ad is supposedly giving us - like in the "anti-smoking" ads).However, this book could have been just as informative and a lot more interesting if it were halved in length. Also, having just devoured another book right after this one, I realized that this book rubbed me the wrong way because the author is a classic extrovert and assumes the world and everyone else's brains function similarly. I also felt like the book was a big sales pitch, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to buy at the end of it.
A slight book, about a topic that deserved much more research, and a more rigorous and scientific approach in the analysis. This 'slightness' perhaps is inevitable when written by someone who (I think) thinks that he is a lot smarter than he is. The book's premise sounded interesting, unfortunately the book did not live upto the premise's promise.
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