Nice light book .. Serves as an introduction to Marketing for me .. ( )

Not good - I felt it was just propaganda. ( )

Interesting look under the hood of what goes on in our brains when we buy things. Some very interesting ideas. Nicely balanced. ( )

Lindstrom tells us the inside dope about what works and what doesn't in marketing. That is, he demonstrates the effectiveness of various methods of getting us to buy. He does so by looking into people's brains, literallly.

In the largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, Lindstrom worked with organizations around the world to test what people actually feel about certain advertising techniques and products. Using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines, researchers studied hundreds of subjects over almost three years. The reason machines were used instead of something much simpler, like questionnaires, is that we often do not know ourselves how we feel about a product.

For example, in a study of smokers, Lindstrom found that while smokers said that the warnings on cigarette packages gave them pause and turned them off smoking, their brains said, instead, that these warnings actually caused them to crave cigarettes more. It doesn't seem to make sense, but there is a simple explanation.

In study after study, Lindstrom evaluated some of the "conventional wisdom" in advertising: sex sells. subliminal messages work. The effects of rituals in brand acceptance. Smells. Logos. In some cases the results were predictable. In many others, they were not.

One example involved the marketing of cars. Consumers found it difficult to differentiate among many cars, all of whom used the same glitzy, fast-car type advertising. I notice that these types of ads are still being shown and they are still ineffective.

This book could be useful to more than advertising companies. It could help nonprofits as well, to develop effective yet relatively inexpensive campaigns. The book offers several examples of various techniques and evaluates their effectiveness. This alone will be useful for some. More ambitious organizations may wish to conduct their own neuromarketing studies based on this model.

Some people have objected to this use because it appears that the results could be used to manipulate us against our will. I think that's already happening. But if we consumers are aware of these techniques we should be better able to resist. Thus not only companies can benefit from reading this book. ( )

I started reading this, and I just could not get into it. I guess I was not in the mood to read about neuromarketing studies no matter how compelling the findings may be (at least according to the author). The book may be interesting to someone else, but it certainly did not grab or keep my attention. ( )