Buyology Book Summary - Buyology Book explained in key points

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Buyology summary

Name: Buyology
Rating: 4.2 (86 reviews)
Author: Martin Lindstrom

Martin Lindstrom

Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

4.2 (86 ratings)

19 mins

Topics

Neuromarketing

Table of Contents

Buyology
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Understand what makes you buy what you buy.

What was your last big purchase? Do you remember why you bought it? Why you chose that particular brand over the others? How rational was your decision-making process?

If we’re honest with ourselves, we admit that our purchasing decisions often aren’t based on a rational comparison of a product’s pros and cons, but rather a gut-level decision we can’t quite explain. So what exactly motivates us to buy?

And why is it that some people prefer Pepsi to Coke or Ruffles to Lays? While we might chalk up the distinction to mere personal preferences in taste, a closer examination reveals that the answer is a lot less cut and dry, and goes a lot deeper.

Buyology examines what’s actually going on in our brains that causes us to open or close our wallets. It’ll show us that current methods employed in market research, such as questionnaires, don’t necessarily work because what we say we want and what our brains say we want are often at odds.

Instead, marketers should look to neuromarketing – i.e., marketing based on information we get from sophisticated neuroimaging machinery – in order to produce the best marketing strategies possible.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

whether subliminal advertising really works,
why sex doesn’t sell,
what Oreos and the Catholic Church have in common and
why there’s simply no way of grossing out smokers enough into kicking the habit.

Mirror neurons influence our buying decisions without our control.

Why is it that whenever someone else yawns we have the uncontrollable urge to do the same? Or why is it seeing someone else’s beaming smile puts a smile on our face as well? It all comes down to mirror neurons.

In 1992, scientist Giacomo Rizzolatti conducted a study on a type of monkey called macaques, and was astonished to find that the animals’ premotor neurons lit up both when reaching for a nut and when watching another macaque do the same.

These are mirror neurons at work, and evidence even suggests that the regions of our brains that contain mirror neurons are equally stimulated whether we’re performing an action ourselves or merely watching someone else do it.

Essentially, we reenact in our minds whatever we observe others doing.

Companies seek to exploit our mirror neurons with their advertising to entice us to buy. Because our mirror neurons respond to “targeted gestures,” i.e., images of someone sipping a soft drink or lacing up a new shoe, this makes them invaluable to marketing. The attractive models on Abercrombie & Fitch bags, for instance, trigger our mirror neurons with the promise of a perfect body.

But mirror neurons don’t always act alone: they often work in concert with dopamine, a pleasure hormone, in order to create the happy feeling that causes us to buy. This is why we feel so great after a little “retail therapy,” even if that rush of dopamine causes us to buy more than our rational minds would otherwise allow.

The rush we get from making purchases can be explained by our evolution. We consider purchases to be an indicator of an increase in social status, which in turn increases our reproductive chances. Thus, our bodies’ survival instinct floods our brains with dopamine to urge us to buy the latest car model or a fancy new handbag in order to increase our chances at reproduction.

Somatic markers affect the way we perceive products.

Imagine you’re at the store buying peanut butter. Do you choose Skippy, Jif or Peter Pan? Most likely, you decide without a moment’s hesitation – though you probably can’t explain why.

This is a result of our brains’ somatic markers, or shortcuts that trigger automatic responses. Whenever we make purchasing decisions, our brains process a plethora of thoughts and ideas, and condense them all into a single response. Rather than start the process anew each time we’re faced with the same decision, our brains create shortcuts based on a lifetime of experiences.

Marketers increasingly use fear to sell us their products, and it works.

Although it’s certainly cunning in a sense, appealing to our mirror neurons or ingrained somatic markers is relatively harmless. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for all marketing techniques, some of which exploit our negative emotions to make us buy more.

In fact, fear can be an extremely persuasive marketing technique. When we are stressed or afraid, we seek solid foundations and pleasant experiences – perhaps in the form of purchases – in order to get the sweet rush of dopamine that accompanies it. The dopamine, in turn, causes us to want to shop more.

Subliminal messaging is used quite often in marketing and it induces us to buy.

Paranoia surrounding subliminal messaging – i.e., the use of visual, auditory or other sensory messages that are picked up only by our subconscious – has been rampant since 1957, when the first subliminal advertising was employed in a startling study. Despite the fact that the study was outed as a fake, the National Association of Broadcasters nevertheless banned subliminal messaging.

However, if subliminal messaging includes anything that subconsciously entices us to buy a product, then it’s still very much present in modern marketing. Consider, for example, the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies wafting from the kitchen of the house you’re viewing, or that new car smell while taking a car for a test drive, or Gershwin’s piano rolls playing in the background as you shop around for a new suit. These forms of sensory stimulation all elicit explicit subconscious responses.

Counterintuitively, disclaimers and health warnings actually increase sales.

Gone are the days when doctors recommend their favorite brand of smokes to their patients. Instead, whenever smokers stop into the convenience store to buy cigarettes, they’re met with health warnings ranging from honest to downright gory. Yet, in spite of these warnings, approximately 15 billion cigarettes are sold each day throughout the world.

Knowing this, we have to ask ourselves: Do these disclaimers even work?

Strong brands use some of the same strategies as major religions to ensure loyalty.

What do Coca-Cola and the Catholic Church have in common? The answer may be quite surprising: they employ many of the same strategies for creating – and maintaining – loyalty.

For one, brands associated with quasi-religious rituals are stickier than other brands, i.e., they help us form an emotional connection to the brand.

Do sexual references in advertising work? Not the way we think they do.

Surely you’ve heard that “sex sells,” and the prevalence of sex in advertising certainly suggests that it’s true. Consider a National Airlines commercial, in which a sexy stewardess promises that she’ll “fly you like you’ve never been flown before.” Too subtle? Okay, consider the perfume brand Vulva, which claims to have captured a “beguiling vaginal scent.”

Imbuing advertisements with sexual references is an age-old and thriving technique, but is it effective marketing?

Neuromarketing has the power to fundamentally change the way we conduct market research.

As we’ve learned, most consumer choices are unconscious, making traditional surveys an inadequate tool in market research. However, by using neuromarketing, companies can better predict a product’s success.

In one study, volunteers watched the shows Quizmania, The Swan and How Clean is Your House?, and were then asked to rate the likelihood of watching them again later. Traditional questionnaires showed that Quizmania was least likely to be watched, while The Swan and How Clean Is Your House? were neck and neck.

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What is Buyology about?

Day in and day out we’re bombarded by thousands of brand images, logos and commercials enticing us to buy their products. However, only some ads actually motivate us to whip out our wallets. Why? Using cutting-edge neuromarketing methods, Buyology answers that question and explores the hidden motivations behind our purchasing decisions.

Best quote from Buyology

All the positive associations the subjects had with Coca-Cola (...) beat back their rational, natural preference for the taste of Pepsi.

—Martin Lindstrom

Who should read Buyology?

Anyone exposed to advertising
Anyone who wants to learn more about the brain
Marketing strategists and consumer advocates

About the Author

Martin Lindstrom is a Danish writer and branding expert, and was listed as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009. In addition to consulting top firms, Lindstrom writes for FAST Company and TIME magazine, and has authored numerous other best-selling books.

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