Stars:★★★★★
Summary: Martin Lindstrom reveals pervasive marketing practices used by some of the world’s largest companies to manipulate consumers, and argues that guerilla market techniques intentionally tap the public’s deepest fears, vulnerabilities and dreams. – source
Crown Publishing (2011)
– a division of Random House
Quick Review: WOW
I had no idea what I would learn so much about how companies market to us. I thought I knew the tricks they use such as painting the food in commercials to make it look yummier and such. But I really had NO idea how much they know about us and how they use that to their advantage. I think this is a VERY important book to read.
So what sort of things will you learn about?
New findings that reveal how advertisers and marketers intentionally target children at an alarmingly young age – starting when they are still in the womb!
Shocking results of an fMRI study which uncovered what heterosexual men really think about when they see sexually provocative advertising (hint: it isn’t their girlfriends).
How marketers and retailers stoke the flames of public panic and capitalize on paranoia over global contagions, extreme weather events, and food contamination scares.
The first ever neuroscientific evidence proving how addicted we all are to our iPhones and our Blackberry’s (and the shocking reality of cell phone addiction – it can be harder to shake than addictions to drugs and alcohol).
How companies of all stripes are secretly mining our digital footprints to uncover some of the most intimate details of our private lives, then using that information to target us with ads and offers ‘perfectly tailored’ to our psychological profiles.
How certain companies, like the maker of one popular lip balm, purposely adjust their formulas in order to make their products chemically addictive.
What a 3-month long guerilla marketing experiment, conducted specifically for this book, tells us about the most powerful hidden persuader of them all. – source
You can read an excerpt but let me tell you that you the book is SO much more.
If you haven’t read this book, you have no idea what sort of data mining is going on. Apps and programs, websites, loyalty cards and credit cards all transmit data about us to companies. Research has shown what sort of music to play while we shop and how to set up the store to make us buy more. Even the author himself was surprised by some of his findings and fell victim to a scheme designed to sell something.
Check out this Brandwashed test too. 80% of people have only gotten 4 right, see how you do! Apparently it’s easy to forget what you read too because I read the book and only got 5!
Don’t think that just because you don’t work in marketing or your are just the average consumer, this doesn’t apply to you. It applies to everyone and anyone who purchases things, which would be everybody!
*I received a copy of this book for review. All opinions are honest.
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