Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

Author: Martin Lindstrom
Published by: Doubleday Business, 2008

Based on the single largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, BUYOLOGY reveals surprising truths about our attention and captures our dollars. For example:

  • 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 slice of 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, seven-million-dollar, cutting-edge brain scan study of over 2,000 people from around the world, the revelations of marketing guru Martin Lindstrom will captivate anyone who has 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 through the mind of today’s consumer.