Buyology Chapter By Chapter

Introduction

Does sex sell? What do religion and ritual have in common with successful brands? How successful is product placement? Does subliminal advertising really influence our behavior? Based on the largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, Buyology separates the truths from the lies about why we buy, revealing how marketers and advertisers truly capture our attention, our loyalty, and our dollars.

Buyology unveils the results of marketing guru Martin Lindstrom's pioneering three-year, $7 million dollar study that used the latest in brain scan technology to peer into the minds of over 2,000 people from around the world. The shocking results will reveal why so much of what we thought we knew about why we buy is wrong. Buyology rewrites the rules of marketing and advertising.

Chapter 1:

A Rush of Blood to the Head

The largest neuromarketing study ever conducted

In this chapter, Martin Lindstrom introduces his groundbreaking study, and shows how this powerful new tool, NeuroMarketing, will turn traditional market research on its head. Whether it's a pack of cigarettes, a new car, or a can of soft drink, Lindstrom's groundbreaking findings use cutting edge science to shed fascinating new light on why we buy the things we do.

Chapter 2:

This Must Be the Place

Product placement: American Idol and Ford's multi-million dollar mistake

When you watched E.T. gather up those Reese's Pieces one by one, did you crave that peanut butter-chocolate goodness? Did watching Tom Cruise as he slid on his Ray Bans in 'Top Gun' make you wish you had a pair? When Simon Cowell took a sip of Coca-Cola during a judging of 'American Idol', did you feel thirsty? The Coca-Cola Company, and the two other key sponsors of 'American Idol' hope so, since they each shelled out over $26 million on their 'American Idol' campaigns. Marketers have believed in the efficacy of product placement for decades. In 2006, companies paid a total of $3.36 billion globally to have their products placed in TV shows, movies and music videos. Yet no-one has put the technique of product placement to the test. Not, that is, until September 2007, when Project Buyology scanned hundreds of consumer brains to test the effectiveness of product placement for the very first time.

Chapter 3:

I'll Have What She's Having

Mirror neurons at work

What does the behavior of a macaque monkey have to do with the astounding global success of the iPod? A little function in our brain so significant it's been referred to as the DNA for psychology, the mirror neuron, sheds new light on a wide range of consumer behaviors'from why a mere smile from a salesperson can compel us to spend more money, to why video games like 'Guitar Hero' are so popular, to why we're hardwired to shop until we drop.

Chapter 4:

I Can't See Clearly Now

Subliminal messaging, alive and well

In 1957, when a market researcher named James Vicary claimed that a lightning-quick image of a Coca-Cola bottle'flashed for less than 1/3000th of a second on a movie screen'was enough to make the audience rush to the concession stand for a Coke, America was shocked and alarmed. If marketers could use hidden messages to get us to buy, couldn't other nefarious forces use similar tactics to psychologically manipulate our behavior? The term 'subliminal advertising' was coined, and its practice was quickly banned in 1957. Since then, no-one has explored the potential influence of subliminal advertising'until Project Buyology. Lindstrom and some of the world's most respected neuroscientists embarked on a mission to discover whether or not subliminal messages still surround us, and the extent to which they really influence our behavior. But be warned, what you're about to see'or rather not see'may alarm you.

Chapter 5:

Do You Believe in Magic?

Ritual, superstition and why we buy

Do you have a lucky pen you always take to important meetings? Do you have a fear of the number 13? Do you always drink your Corona with a wedge of lime, or eat the filling of your Oreo cookie first? If so, you're not alone. Turns out, the relationship between such everyday rituals and why we buy is a close and inescapable one. And as you'll read in Buyology, many of the rituals we habitually perform in our daily lives were actually manufactured by companies and marketers to draw us to their brands and products.

Chapter 6:

I Say a Little Prayer

Faith, religion and brands

What connection, if any, exists between religion and our buying behavior? Are there similarities between the way our brains respond to religious and spiritual symbols, and the way they react to products or brands? Could certain products inspire the same sense of devotion and loyalty in us, as provoked by faith or religion? Might companies borrow from the world of religion when advertising their products? Project Buyology wasn't downplaying the importance of religion in people's lives when it found that these connections were more powerful than we ever realized.

Chapter 7:

Why Did I Choose You?

The power of somatic markers

We make hundreds of snap decisions each and every day. Yet so many of them happen deep within our subconscious, so fast and far below the surface we're barely aware of them. In Buyology, you'll read how companies plant instant shortcuts'or brand bookmarks'in our subconscious to help us decide what to (or what not to) buy. And yes, your brain too holds some of them and they've probably influenced everything from the make of the last car you decided to buy to the brand of coffee you brewed this morning.

Chapter 8:

A Sense of Wonder

Selling to our senses

Does your heart rate increase when you see one of those signature robin-egg blue Tiffany boxes? Or maybe you feel your pulse race when you inhale the scent of your new car. In a revolutionary experiment, Lindstrom and his team of neuroscientists used fMRI technology to examine the influence our senses have on what we buy.

Chapter 9:

And the Answer is'

NeuroMarketing and predicting the future

Remember when Coke altered its secret recipe to produce New Coke? Sales plummeted. Sure, the company had tested the new product before embarking on the multi-million dollar disaster. So how did the 200,000 people who participated in the extensive market research get it wrong? The fact is, nine out of ten product releases fail. So if market research is so unreliable, how can companies get the information they need to develop products that consumers really want? It's time for a new approach. NeuroMarketing opens the way by peering inside consumer brains to uncover the hidden motivations, needs and desires that our conscious minds aren't aware of. Using the pilot of a TV game show as the test product, Lindstrom and the team discovered that what hundreds of test participants said they hated, they really kind of loved.

Chapter 10:

Let's Spend the Night Together

Sex in advertising

Are you interested in sex? That got your attention, didn't it? In this chapter, Lindstrom and his team of neuroscientists take a look at whether sex in advertising succeeds in seducing our interest in products, or whether it backfires. From Calvin Klein to an Italian ad campaign that will make you shudder, Buyology puts an age-old question to the test: does sex sell?

Chapter 11:

Conclusion

Everything we thought about branding is about to change. In 2005, when Martin Lindstrom launched Project Buyology'the largest, most comprehensive NeuroMarketing study ever conducted'he shattered the face of marketing as we know it. NeuroMarketing has emerged as a powerful new tool in understanding consumers' decision-making processes. This groundbreaking new science will revolutionize our understanding of our own buying behavior and send shock waves throughout the marketing and advertising industries and the business world as a whole. A subject they never taught you in school, you're about to discover your own 'buyology'.